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THE COLLECTION OF 
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ENDOWED BY 
JOHN SPRUNT HILL 
CLASS OF 1889 


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wake AND LAUREL 


-A Study of the Mountain Mission 
Schools of Southern Baptists 


By MABEL SWARTZ WITHOFT 







NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE 


SUNDAY SCHOOL BOARD 
OF THE 


SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 


Copyright 1923 
Sunday School Board 
Southern Baptist Convention 
Nashville, Tenn. 


Printed in the United States of America 


“And God hath set some in the church, . .. teachers .. .” 
(1 Cor. 12: 28) 


SS SSNS 


DEDICATION 
To the teacher in the mountain mission school 
—man or woman— 
unselfish, painstaking, persevering, 
possessed of the spirit of the Master. Teacher, 
this study 
of these Southern Baptist schools is 
appreciatively and lovingly 
dedicated. 
May all these teachers find reward in the 
consecrated living of the thousands 
whom they influence. 





“And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we 
shall reap, if we faint not” (Gal. 6: 9) 





CONTENTS 


Paacu 
THD OAK AND THE LAUREL 
Fi SE ACO Oo ees 2 cs ins re are PE arpele ae 7 
LORE WO D Mmm tarry ster si sieve) cia eth sos. co Aas uci evo ah stone statiece be ake 
ALABAMA 
PTIdSOpOrem A CAMCMY! occ cath «os 0 os twee Me Sehr yt hae RRO a 13 
BULOTIG Xe mA CAC OMNVan yettadciererit. «sis sles oie  ohell o oivee ed ecole vere cote 16 
ARKANSAS 
SIVISHER ESI METLOUNIG | COLECSEN.. sr. 8 . ss piele ew acleceic b wla’e oo et ais me 23 
May NandmeA CHGCIN Visianients oc oisattte res se eis noes e coal oie eters cleats 28 
MOUnteE AmeA CA CCIN Yai: castor cceaicca vile oe /sde. clare o'slevelus’ so ah 29 
EPR SavA GmeA CO. CIV) sue oteee we earciete ait ieiouce hloels Gale & ole agus eres 30 
INGWEGIIEC OAT CY A. CACCDLY. 1s. Spots oie alee ae ovis ese vo sles oe 31 
Carrolimeeountye INStitUte cuts ctaickcloicre ccs «isis wie e ole ole oO ebeneas 33 
GEORGIA 
ELLA WASSCOMPACTLU CIN Y; 05 Ma ctetcueter cfonettie te ah oe wee 6 o shorel aces wreravens 35 
Bleckleyas Memorial = Institute sscmicsen ec: ote olin Sak acca er OS 
Marvel evn e nam Schoo! Ma cacvcine iets. 6 dlcrs oe sisson so -« 42 
Blairsville Colleriates INstitutew mares cscs s o sis ons rete ere sche 45 
KENTUCKY 
Barboursvilles: baptistycInstitutemarcm. ccc. oe trs ecele sc & one's os 46 
ONG Ose BAPtist PILOStICUte sicre crerere otete noe 6 lavolateliclie ce 6 sea ace re 49 
Hazandm Da pester l NStivUuteur cn ace dar aeteiece en elers) Siena) sis so Sele oes 50 
Mao MMe INStEtutelg sce cre terciaia cick Prieicie odes o ore cust eels siete cle ate'e 52 
CumberlanGe@oHezes c\c sev: sels leere nt etsia Ge apatele wécecdiete! ¥e.5 6 54 
MISSOURI 
South weosteraptist College 4.608 oe ee ee ee a ert 55 
NORTH CAROLINA 
SylvaeCollestatemiInstituteis. .:.ic sco cre eeveuess: os sis, 6 elie, ree 0-6 sxe 63 
ELA WOOCMPENSUILUCO ME eaterene rar cileue ec eavT acre ramen acts fateh loves oie e) ole e7.e 66 
South e=Mountain= Industrial “School 250.0. ve ve. os css 70 
MCT an GML AlIL ULC sca tie crete crovererera fee sielevd orate) ers, cc. specstonecs q2 
Yancey Collegiate Institute ..............6. Aeterna wale are 78 
Rounds etliAcademy. ssn acre stereo eons chee AY ealvearite fellel cers) Ora ace 85 
Marsibtilim@ollezeanrreniccicre cic) here erectile) srerene: eter evere overs s eucls 86 
Mountain Vile wal Nstituteic. cic cc cies close oe-ercre! ssi sielsvale G0. 95 
SouTH CAROLINA 
NortheGreenvillera Ca dem yiow sccccrarcistimemeerotecereisiel siiswe cee ee stele ' 96 
Six=Mileowm A CAdem Viner sc cieis ere ee ee eae ens latehars ols lellels, weeiare ote 102 
LongsC reeks Academ Varcvenaiccn orlormerier eine anenete arse ee ee ieesce 105 
TENNESSEE 
W AlLAUZA ACRGCINV ioe aretsclo rae eeraenetrE a heel ors aoa 810 ey hlelans 6's 109 
Harrison-Chilhowee Institute <2. ccc ccc we tt eee 43 
Stocton mV alleys Academ Vises .seis. tetevekewene sieve cle ekst ale ere cisve.s eS 
Cosby A CAC Omi yeti man lorcsebotel cnaeebenet on chaiorercistalononet oc tasuie, she, latte velle 26 119 
Doyle M@INStit Wises ratios enere terse eee Shot cleverle’s ebelyiste sae aos 122 
SmokysMountainweA Cadem yaar mat morreraetednccnarditslelers cle slere se 125 
VIRGINIA 
Leese Ba ptlcrmrasticnten fcc eee eee he ce elena tle 6 kins 129 
BltewRidcomeond0ls «ventas sc ctitate ovtieltie ede ea 8b oe 5 ae 1382 
BuchHananwescn Oo Mercier cso: ctens Cetera oRe hs (ereca 5 va lemedexels overs 134 
Oak SS HilierAcadem Varw. eiissctrs cease he rere Ce ee ale, oe ebro 8 eRe sls 137 
Piedmonteinstitute rm we sce one cietersiolete lclevere cists Secret on hohe 187 
CONCLUSION tirctepst te cere sisha wie itches. exe: upletote: oie BE eke re tar aPoasiche wetare aaarlel otaes 139 


QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION ......- Has SRR susuereetinks 0 weer sks 154 





THE OAK AND THE LAUREL 


An Allegory 


Fresh from the hands of the Creator, the south- 
ern mountain ranges smiled into the face of the 
rising sun at daybreak; and at evening breathed 
a benediction upon it, departing. Nature had fin- 
ished her task; pines towered soldierly in open 
ranks upon the summits; sycamore and graceful 
willow fringed the streams; hickory and chestnut 
and walnut bore their fruitage, rested, blossomed 
and bore again, untiring; oaks were everywhere. 
Flowers of every tint and shape and size followed 
the lovely seasons in and out; and in winter the 
silent, kindly snow covered all with the blanket 
of oblivion. 

Nature looked about at her children on every 
side; she gazed longest at the sturdy oak. Every 
where he grew, in thick groves, solitary by pas- 
ture streams, on rock-ribbed heights, resisting the 
blasts, bending ever so little; but he was ungainly 
and awkward, for all his strength, nor did he real- 
ize the latent power that was in him. 

_. “I wish you were not so unsymmetrical, my son,” 
she sighed at length. “Perhaps I should graft 
you upon the pine, the soldier of the forest,—or I 

might try a willow bud; you sadly need grace 
and delicacy. You would be more beautiful if 

I gave you the colors of the frost-nipped maple, or 

the quivering sensitiveness of the aspen. You 

have not the warm, motherly beauty of the hover- 
ing beech, or the elegance of the magnolia. Can 

I do anything to improve you, I wonder?” 


(7) 


8 OAK AND LAUREL 


And quietly the oak replied, “Nay, Mother Na- 
ture, if none is so rugged and uncomely as I, neither 
is any so strong and enduring. The winds can 
bend me but a little, and I have long life. My 
branches are irregular, it is true, for I am pruned 
at will by the blasts of mountain wind; and my 
shade is uncertain, but I am but little subject to 
disease, and if I do not bear fruits as others do, 
yet the pigs like my acorns!” 

So Mother Nature wisely ceased trying to make 
this giant of the mountains conform to the ways 
of others; she sent skilled men to prune and trim 
his branches; they cut away the underbrush that 
choked him, and gave him abundantly the water of 
life and the bread of heaven; and he spread 
abroad his branches, and stood firm against every 
wind that would uproot him. 

He learned to build men’s houses and furnish 
them; he made ships and all sorts of conveyances; 
he became polished and even brilliant, by the pro- 
cesses to which men subjected him; patient and 
persistent, he persevered in the hands of wise 
teachers, until he became in turn a maker of his- 
tory, and served not only his native mountains, 
but his nation, well ;—this young oak of the south- 
ern mountains. 

And Mother Nature, well content, glanced about 
for a fitting mate for him. The black-eyed susan 
and the gleaming goldenrod stood boldly beckon- 
ing on every mountain trail; modest violet and 
blossoming strawberry and blackberry vine would 
not press their claims; the frost-flower and the 
iron-weed put on half mourning when she passed 
them by. But there was a maiden in the moun- 
tains who cared not whether men’s eyes were upon 
her. She was of noble birth and breeding, for she 


OAK AND LAUREL 2 


came of the ancient Rhododendron family, aristo- 
crat of the highlands; she was of the heights 
herself, whether she hung over a flashing stream 
to bathe her face, or sat upon a bare cliff in her 
glossy green mantle; but she was wild—a crea- 
ture of the untamed mountains. In the spring she 
wore a crown of delicate rosy beauty, and men 
exclaimed over her virginal loveliness. Mother 
Nature would have transplanted her to the low- 
lands, that she might be cultured and grow up 
with the rose, the lily, and the daffodil. But she 
said, “Nay, I would be homesick there. They are 
not of the mountains as I am. Let me stay here 
in my highlands, but send me kind hearts to 
teach me, wise hands to train me, discipline to 
deepen my roots and love to bring color to my 
cheeks. Then I will devote my life to beautifying 
my mountain home and showing my sisters how 
to live.” 

So the laurel remained clinging to the cliffs, and 
making every glen a place of beauty; and those 
who had developed her, watching her expanding 
soul, knew that their work for her, and for her 
friend the young oak, had not been in vain. They 
may be found in all our southern ranges to-day ;— 
the oak and the laurel, the strength and beauty 
of the mountains. 


‘‘That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; 
Thy children like olive plants about thy table.’’ 





“Come, now and let us reason together” (Isaiah 1: 
‘hg he 
FOREWORD 


The one idea in the preparation of this book, 
has been to inform the Baptists of the South 
as to the whereabouts and condition of their 
mountain mission schools, and the work they are 
accomplishing; at the same time to so set forth 
their needs, that all hearts will be stirred to the 
point of interested activity that adequate equip- 
ment and better salaried teachers, where both are 
so obviously deserved, may be provided. 

Let every one who studies this book inquire 
thoughtfully, “Ought not J to give more generous- 
ly to Home and State Missions, seeing that there 
is no nobler or more far-reaching work than this 
of our mountain mission school?” 

This volume does not claim to be a history of 
the operations of any one Board; nor of the 
schools; nor a treatise on the folk of the south- 
ern mountains; neither does it presuppose that 
present conditions are permanent. It is only a 
picture of the schools as they were in 1922-23. 

Appreciation must be expressed for all the kind- 
nesses and courtesies which have helped to make 
this book possible; from students and teachers, 
principals, pastors and W. M. U. leaders; taxi 
drivers and friendly farmers, in Fords and buggies 
and mountain wagons. It is truly a collaboration in 
which our Father himself took an active part. May 
his blessing follow this volume into the hearts of all 


his people! 
M.S. W. 
(11) 





“The strength of the hills is his also” (Ps. 95: 4). 


CHAPTER I 
ALABAMA 


Bridgeport Academy 


“Alabama!” exclaimed the Indians. “Here we 
rest!” No spot in the whole state, surely, could 
be more peaceful and lovely than this, nestled in 
the curve of the broad, calm and beautiful Tennes- 
see River, with the Sand Mountains bordering one 
horizon, and the Cumberlands another. The river, 
so deeply, majestically placid, moves with such 
sinuous grace, such unhurried splendor, as to stir 
scarcely a ripple on its shining expanse. 

The valley through which it meanders is very 
fert**= and productive; divided into many patches 
of green and brown and yellow, according to the 
season; the bushes and low trees which fringe the 
river’s banks are like a bodyguard marching silent- 
ly along beside its gleaming water. This is the 
scene one views from Battery Hill, the name a 
reminder that here in Civil War days there were 
a garrison and fortifications. Now only the name, 
and these worn earthworks remain; but the eter- 
nal God preserves the beauty of this wondrous 
spot, and man finds food for much reflection, as he 
gazes down upon river, valley, and mountains blue 
with haze. 

On this splendid height, at the eastern end of 
Bridgeport, with its inspiring outlook, would be 


(13) . 


14 OAK AND LAUREL 


an ideal location for Bridgeport Academy. It 
seems to be just waiting for such an occupancy. 
But the school is at the opposite end of the town, 
a good mile or two away; pleasantly enough lo- 
cated in a grove of tall oaks, occupying about a 
block, with its four good-sized structures. These 
are all frame; only the foundation and lower half 
of the administration building is of native stone, 
while the upper half is shingled, making a distinc- 
tive appearance. *This building stands on the 
corner of the grounds nearest the center of town. 
It has large, airy, well ventilated classrooms for 
children of all grades from the first up. There is 
a public school, but some of the best people prefer 
to send their children here, especially Baptists. In 
fact the greatest number of these pupils belong in 
Bridgeport; a good many are from the county 
and a very few from the mountains. 

The enrollment in the fall of 1922 was 135, but 
the past years led to the assurance that this would 
be doubled by Christmas; seventy-five of these 
were in the high school, forty were boarding pupils, 
four ministerial students. 

The faculty, composed of twelve teachers, five 
of whom have special departments, was headed 
in 1922-23 by R. L. Creal, whose experience as 
associate in the office of the Superintendent of 
Mountain Schools of the Home Mission Board, 
gives him an unusual fitness for this position. 

Bridgeport Academy had suffered much in two 
or three previous vears and had accumulated debts 
which seemed enough to swamp the institution 
but Dr. Creal came to the rescue, and by his pru- 
dence, tact and wisdom has succeeded in getting 
affairs upon a safe basis once more. 


*This building has burned since this was written. 


OAK AND LAUREL 15 


Certainly the school is as secure as ever in the 
' support of its patrons, and the loyalty and devo- 
tion of the teachers assure its speedy restoration 
to whatever prestige it may have lost. Obviously 
it has a wide region from which to draw its patron- 
age and the expense is about that of the average 
mission school. 

There were seven girls and four boys who 
worked their way in September, 1922. These girls 
cooked, washed dishes, swept, etc. The cooking 
was excellent, and the meals appetizingly set forth. 
There is no running water in the dormitories; no 
heating plant in the boys’ home; no method of 
heating water in the girls’ home. There is dire 
need of a new range in the kitchen; it is really 
amazing what good muffins those girls can bake in 
an oven with a hole in it! (Perhaps when this 
sees the light, some one will already have installed 
a fine new range in the Bridgeport kitchen.) 

The auditorium on the second floor of the Ad- 
ministration Building is splendidly large, light, 
airy with comfortable chairs; there is a spacious 
platform with an arrangement of curtains for 
special occasions; this is really more appropriate 
to a school of this character than a regular stage 
with scenery, which some of our schools have. 
The laboratory of science is rather small and 
crowded, but does the work nevertheless; the li- 
brary has the required number of books for an 
accredited high school and many well-chosen mag- 
azines. 

The greater part of the house intended for the 
occupancy of the principal, is given over to the 
Domestic Science and Art Departments. The teach- 


16 OAK AND LAUREL 


er who acts as athletic coach, and his wife have 
rooms in the Boys’ Home, and make the Home 
more livable by their presence. 

The atmosphere of the school is pleasant, co- 
operative, without friction. The spiritual tempera- 
ture registers high; the look on the faces of these 
boys and girls as they listen to the evening prayer 
and Bible reading, gives one a feeling of satisfac- 
tion as to the future of this particular portion of 
our own dear land. 


Eldridge Academy 


Between sixty and seventy miles from Birming- 
ham, northwest, is Eldridge Academy, settled 
cosily among the hilltops, the little village strung 
along the railroad being apparently designed for 
the convenience and companionship of the school 
This location is ideal indeed; here are the acces- 
sible hills, the rural beauty of stream and rock and 
cascade, the rails and the wires which bring the 
world into close touch. A home and a school and 
its home life is very pleasant and cordial. 

The faculty itself is like a happy family: and 
the sixty boys and girls who live on the premises 
are surrounded and controlled by loving, sympa- 
thetic attention. 

The main building and boys’ hall at Eldridge 
are some thirty years old. Outside they are very 
presentable, being constructed of native stone, cal- 
culated to withstand the wear of time and use. 
This was originally known as Eldridge Normal 
School, but passed into the hands of the Baptist 
Home Mission Board about ten years later. The 
girls’ dormitory, added after it became a Baptist 


OAK AND LAUREL 17 


institution, burned a few years ago, and in 1918 
a new one was erected, with rooms for about 
forty girls; apartments for the principal’s family, 
reception hall, dining-room and kitchen. The li- 
brary adequate to an accredited high school is 
housed here also. 

The partitions are all of beaver board, an ar- 
rangement both agreeable and otherwise, for while 
it prevents all privacy, it enables the teachers to 
keep good order, and is really a wholesome condi- 
tion. This dormitory is full, and the teaching ac- 
tivities of this school are so pressing, that the 
principal’s family have surrendered all their rooms 
but one, for office, class and practice rooms; 
sounds of dish washing, piano and Bible teaching 
mingle through the thin walls each proceeding 
sturdily on its own way. 

There is of course no room reserved here for 
guests; but any girl is glad to put her own room 
in apple pie order, and vacate it for the sake of an 
interested visitor. 

The dining-room at Eldridge is large, spacious 
and sunny, with windows on both sides. A piano 
in one corner, fresh scrim curtains at the windows, 
and flowering plants on the tables create an im- 
pression of cheer and sociability that confirms the 
feeling one has that Eldridge is both home and 
school. Some of the faculty preside over the stt- 
dents’ tables, while a round table in the middle 
of the room is laid for other teachers and the prin- 
cipal. Here every morning the Y. W. A. leader 
announces the object of prayer on the W. M. U. 
calendar of prayer for the day, and the prayer is 
voiced by some one, while sixty young heads bow, 
and sixty pairs of ears hear the names of some 
missionaries or some mission cause carried to the 


18 OAK AND LAUREL 


Father’s throne. The Y. W. A. holds its regular 
meeting each Wednesday night immediately after 
supper, and sometimes the whole student body is 
invited. Every girl is a member and the organiza- 
tion is most enthusiastic. 

The kitchen is well arranged for the work to 
be done in it; but it sadly needs a drain-pipe to 
carry off waste water. This should be laid to pass 
through the wash-house, a shelter where the girls 
must do their laundry work, and continue on down 
the slope to a sink which should be provided. This 
simple arrangement would improve the sanitary 
conditions vastly and make a decided decrease in 
labor. 

The basketball court lies between the girls’ home 
and the main building; here both boys’ and girls’ 
teams win enthusiastic victories over high school 
teams from neighboring towns, though they have 
no coach of either sex. <A baseball diamond is 
also upon the campus, which occupies most of the 
scant ten acres belonging to the school. A garden 
plot and small enclosure for two or three cows 
make up the rest. 

The main building might well be named, “An- 
cient History”; its walls contain records of 
achievements scholastic and sentimental. Its win- 
dows need glass; its woodwork needs paint; and 
there are only about fifty chairs for all the class- 
rooms; but there are excellent blackboards, ob- 
tained in 1921-22, and the work on them is with- 
out criticism. 

If every student of the 115 that were enrolled in 
1922-23 had a chair for classwork, he or she would 
be obliged to carry it along from one classroom 
to another. There should be fifty chairs in each 
of the five classrooms; instead of only fifty in all. 


OAK AND LAUREL 19 


Upstairs, reached by a rickety narrow stairway, 
is the chapel, large, light, and exceedingly airy, 
both in summer and winter. There are a few 
benches here, a few chairs and a few old desks of 
various sizes. Happily, Miss Willie Jean Stewart 
of Birmingham’ together with her father have 
announced their intention of furnishing this hall 
with appropriate seats before the commencement 
of 1923, as a memorial to the late Mrs. Stewart. 
Miss Stewart is a member of the Board of Trustees, 
and takes a very active and beneficial interest in 
the school. 

The literary societies render excellent programs, 
and the dramatic club gives upon this historic 
platform performances which would do credit to 
the most modern auditorium; the question of a 
new one can be relegated to the background until 
other more pressing needs shall have been met. 

That there may be more pressing needs is real- 
ized immediately by the visitor who approaches 
the building which shelters the boys. It barely shel- 
ters them, for while the roof may not leak much, 
yet the walls and floor are in such a condition 
that there is possible neither privacy nor safety 
from rats and mice. The fifteen boys who braved 
these unpleasant surroundings in the year 1922- 
23 made the best of the situation. Their rooms 
were kept in perfect order (being graded on daily 
inspection), and their personal neatness and at- 
tempts at decoration were a rebuke to those who 
claim that boys do not appreciate pleasant sur- 
roundings. Potted plants and curtains look sadly 
out of place. The Home Board has deposited 
$1,000 for these repairs, but to date it has not been 
used. 


20 OAK AND LAUREL 


The building ought to house at least twice as 
many boys, but there have been two factors in 
the decrease in male enrollment at Eldridge; one, 
the condition of this building just mentioned, the 
other the cessation of a strike in the mines which 
enabled many boys to go to work, and thereby eke 
out the family support, long diminished by lack 
of employment. Some of these boys will doubtless 
return to school. 

In one of the empty rooms of this old dormitory 
has been placed the quite respectable laboratory 
equipment without which the teacher of science 
could accomplish next to nothing. A porch that 
once existed outside this room, remains now only 
as a few two-by-fours, over which the boys have 
laid a plank or two, with an empty box for a step. 

Eldridge is a fine school, teaching fine boys and 
girls, exerting a fine influence over a wide section 
of country; and it certainly deserves a complete 
equipment for its greater efficiency, and the com- 
fort of its teachers. It has its own Delco light 
plant, as there is no electricity in the village; but 
it certainly needs waterworks and sanitation; next 
to these or perhaps parallel with them, is the need 
for repairs on the boys’ hall; plaster, paint, glass 
and new flooring would make this stanch old stone 
structure sound and sightly; nor would the ex- 
pense be very great. An additional entrance into 
the back hall of the girls’ home where there is a 
rear stair would prove a very great convenience 
for many reasons. Exits by front door, kitchen 
and principal’s office are not sufficient for every 
purpose. A little more land would enable the 
school to graze a sufficient number of cows so 
that the boys and girls might have fresh milk to 
drink every day. They do not pine for lack of it, 


OAK AND LAUREL 21 


however, a fairer, rosier set of girls—a sturdier, 
finer lot of boys, can not be found; a dozen or 
more are working their way, and seem to enjoy it. 

The silver for the Eldridge dining-room was 
purchased with Octagon soap wrappers collected 
by various W. M. S. over the state, an idea which 
may find followers elsewhere. The silver is wear- 
ing excellently. 

The people of Alabama who know their own 
assets, love Eldridge Academy and no doubt very 
soon will provide for her most pressing needs. 

No boy or girl who has spent a term in this 
beautiful place can escape its influence or forget 
the happy days there passed. 

The plashing murmur of the clear stream that 
hurries over the smooth rocky bed of the ravine, 
deeply, mysteriously beautiful, will sound forever 
in youth’s ear, reminding him of nature’s ever pres- 
ent, ever appealing witness to the God who made 
him, saved him, kept him; and it will recall the 
hours spent in Bible study here at Eldridge, where 
foundations of righteousness and truth are daily 
laid. . 


ARKANSAS 


This great state has its own system of Mountain 
Mission Schools, under the Home Mission Board, 
organized in 1916, known as the Ozark Division 
of the Mountain Mission Schools, and headed by 
H. D. Morton as superintendent. There are in this 
division six schools, three of which were organized 
by Superintendent Morton since 1918. These schools 
with the exception of one, are fostered jointly by 
the Arkansas State Convention and the Home Mis- 
sion Board, that one, Mt. Ida Academy, being the 


22 OAK AND LAUREL 


ward of the State only. These schools represent 
an investment of $200,000. 

Since the appointment of Superintendent Morton 
over the Ozark Division, he has seen the number 
of teachers in mountain mission schools increase 
from eight to thirty-eight; schools from two to 
six; five ministerial students to forty-five; 157 stu- 
dents to nearly 1,000. 

Included in the regular curriculum of each of 
these schools are courses in Sunday School Peda- 
gogy, Missions and Young People’s Work. Young 
men and women of good moral character and real 
ambition are accepted by all these schools regard- 
less of financial lack. They are either furnished 
work or have credit extended, or some person or 
organization is found to help. Scholarships are 
provided from various sources. The total expense 
for nine months in one of these schools varies from 
$125 to $250, according to grade and degree of in- 
dependence of the student. 

In the work of religious training, enlistment and 
preparation for service these schools are accom- 
plishing great things. In one chapel service at 
Mountain Home College in 1922, seventy-four 
young people volunteered to surrender their lives 
for service. This school in 1920-21 stood first of all 
the Baptist institutions in Arkansas in the bestowal 
of the Sunday School Board’s awards; it was also 
first in Arkansas and sixth in the entire South in 
the number of Blue Seals awarded that same year. 

These mountain schools cost the Baptists of 
Arkansas only $15.00 annually per student, which 
is almost incredible considering the number of min- 
isterial students who contribute nothing and yet 
are included in the whole. This cost includes main- 
tenance, equipment and improvement. 


OAK AND LAUREL 23 


The women of the W. M. U. of Arkansas are 
alive to their duty; love and wise direction enable 
them to help the needy youth to education and self- 
support. There are many individual scholarships 
given to these mountain schools. One W. M. U. 
circle keeps a boy at Parthenon—one of eleven 
children, providing him fifteen dollars a month, his 
clothes and a box occasionally; one of the state 
officers is personally responsible for the education 
of a minister’s daughter, now in her second year at 
this same school, who wants to be a nurse. A Sun- 
day-school class pays part of the expenses of a girl 
there, whose father can help her but a little; she 
has become a Christian. This same class sends an- 
other girl to Carroll County Institute, she, too, 
being a recent convert. Dozens of instances could 
be cited of individual interest in the education of 
homeless and friendless girls and boys in these 
mountain schools, resulting in young lives saved 
for Christ. 

Arkansas has been very fortunate in having as 
superintendent of her mountain school system a 
man reared in the mountains, educated by his own 
ambitious efforts, and a born teacher. Boys and 
girls of the mountains are sure of his sympathy and 
assistance, while his intimate knowledge of moun- 
tain life enables him to judge their capabilities and 
meet them on their own ground. 

He first taught in Mountain Home College in 
1902-3, when this school was twelve years old; and 
returned as its president in 1918. 


Mountain Home College 


A school was founded in Mountain Home in 1880 
as an Academy by the ambitious people of that 


24 OAK AND LAUREL 


region, and had a well-nigh state-wide influence in 
those early days, sending out men who became 
prominent in state history. Mountain Home Col- 
lege as such was begun in 1890, by the White River 
Baptist Association, which realized the need of a 
higher phase of education for their children. In 
1917 this school was taken over by the Home Mis- 
sion Board, and made a Junior College. In 1891 
the Administration Building was begun, and com- 
pleted a few years later. It is a two-story brick 
structure with the usual complement of class and 
assembly rooms. The auditorium is seated with 
modern school desks, a wise arrangement, as it 
renders the room useful in many ways. Notwith- 
standing its size this hall is made very comfortable 
by large heaters in the corners. 

In 1920 a stone dormitory of three stories was 
built for young. women at a cost of $50,000. Short- 
ly after a three-story brick residence adjoining the 
campus was purchased together with twenty-seven 
acres of land, and became a handsome home for 
young men students. The wife of one of the minis- 
terial students, living there with her husband,. 
furnishes the refining, restraining feminine in- 
fluence which should prevade every dormitory for 
boys and young men. This building is heated by 
stoves in which wood is burned. This is also true 
of the main building. The girls’ dormitory is 
beautifully arranged and furnished, except for the 
bareness of the spacious reception hall, which is, 
however, amply decorated when filled with these 
sturdy lads and wholesome, ruddy lasses. The 
bedrooms are pleasant and comfortable. | 

There is a good heating plant here, and a Delco 
motor furnishes light for this and the other build- 
ings. There is hot and cold water on all the floors, 


OAK AND LAUREL 25 


and a sewerage system. The dining-room is light 
and airy and commodious. 

The campus contains ten acres, beautifully lo- 
cated, well drained, shaded by fine trees; the re- 
maining twenty-seven acres furnish seven acres of 
orchard, besides good truck garden, and grazing 
land. This tract furnishes employment for several 
needy students, but many more could be given work 
if there were a supply of farming tools; such equip- 
ment would be of double value, by employing boys 
who could thus work out their board, and by en- 
abling the management to grow more produce for 
their own use. 

There is plenty of room for the athletic develop- 
ment of both sexes, and this is encouraged to the 
proper degree, while not made a prominent feature 
of the school work. 

In the summer of 1922 Mr. Morton erected a 
frame structure to accommodate the departments of 
Home Economics and Manual Training; this he did 
at his own expense, and by various gifts the equip- 
ment has been partially gathered. Many things are 
yet desired, however, and no doubt the Arkansas 
Baptists will meet this emergency abundantly. 

The high ideals of this school are well-known 
throughout the state. Its Christian atmosphere is 
maintained by the employment of none but Chris- 
tian men and women of consecrated lives, as teach- 
ters. In 1923 there was a Volunteer Band that 
numbered sixty-four. Before a blessing is invoked 
at the breakfast table, this Volunteer Band has 
held its morning watch; and from then on through 
the chapel exercises to the time when evening 
prayers are offered in the parlor just after supper, 
the day is spent in Christian activities, and no one 
could misunderstand the aim and influence of this 


26 OAK AND LAUREL 


truly great school. The Sunday school of the town 
is largely supported by these students, and the 
chorus choir of the church is recruited from their 
number, while all attend preaching, and two B. Y. P. 
Unions are maintained, as well as a Y. W. A. which 
meets weekly. Of course, the Bible is taught, the 
local pastor as instructor, insuring sound doctrine 
only. 

There are no less than thirty “preacher boys” 
at Mountain Home; some of them married, their 
wives also taking work in the college classes. Some 
of the young women enter late in the school year, 
even after Christmas; these have been teaching 
short-term schools, and come for further learning, 
in preparation for later work. 

Mountain Home College has four literary socie- 
ties, and publishes a semi-monthly paper, the 
“Ozark Echoes.” To have written a story, a poem 
or essay considered worthy of a place in the pages 
of this very attractive journal, marks the student 
as “having arrived” at the junction where only a 
short journey brings the young author to fame. 
The Dramatic Club, Glee Club and orchestra fur- 
nish splendid outlets for developing talent in these 
various lines of accomplishment. 

Every year a lyceum course of not less than five 
numbers is provided for the benefit of the student 
body. 

The library contains about 1200 volumes of stand- 
ard works, besides all the best dailies, weeklies 
and magazines. The laboratory is equipped for 
general scientific work. Outfits for blacksmithing 
and wood-working were to be installed during 1923. 

There were about fifty embryonic teachers tak- 
ing the Normal Course in 1923; this is one of 
the finest functions of such a school as Mountain 


OAK AND LAUREL Re 


Home College, reaching as it does, over the state 
and farther, by means of these teachers who carry 
the school’s influence into ever widening circles of 
other schools, and still others. 

This region of which Mountain Home is the cen- 
ter, abounds in the Landmarkers, as the Primitive 
Baptists are known in Arkansas, and their preju- 
dices against such schools must be met and con- 
quered. Much wild-cat whiskey has been made in 
these mountains; but the attitude of whole commu- 
nities is gradually being changed by the uncom- 
promising convictions of the younger element, 
whose school experiences have taught them that 
law is a wise and necessary thing, and obedience to 
it surely makes life safer and pleasanter and more 
profitable. 

The young men and women who attend Mountain 
Home College, who call Mrs. Morton “Mother,” 
and are guided and influenced by this principal, en- 
joy a real and happy home life indeed. 

Rigid discipline is seldom necessary and love and 
joyousness pervade this place. 

Mr. Morton has seen remarkable growth at 
Mountain Home College. In 1917-18 the tuition 
paid in amounted to $900; in 1921-22 it had swelled 
to $6,000, and in 1922-23 bade fair to reach $8,000. 
When he became president the enrollment was but 
seventy, with seventeen taking special courses, and 
the teachers numbered five. Five years later, the 
student body numbered 175, of whom 120 took spe- 
cial work and the faculty had doubled in size: 

Fifty-eight of the students were boarding in the 
school; many more either boarded in the town or 
did light housekeeping. The girls in the dormitory 
are all required to perform some household duties, 


28 OAK AND LAUREL 


in their regular turn, and some earn their schooling, 
in part or entirely. 

The obvious needs of Mountain Home College 
include more classrooms and further equipment for 
the Home Economics and Manual Training build- 
ing; tools for the farm work, and some repairs on 
barns, etc. 

To stay at this school for nine months need not 
cost more than $235 to $255, and students can help 
with the work and reduce their expenses to $140 
to $160. 

Six states and twenty counties were represented 
at Mountain Home in 1922-23. 

A summer school is conducted here for eight 
weeks, which is most helpful to young teachers who 
must be at their work during the school year; 
two units, or one half year’s work can be com- 
pleted at each session. About fourteen to twenty 
high school and special subjects are taught. The 
value of this summer school will be evident to all. 

Five other mountain schools are included in the 
system of the Arkansas Division. 


Maynard Academy 


Maynard Academy is located in the small town 
of Maynard, Randolph County, which, having only 
three hundred inhabitants, and being ten miles 
from the railroad, is free from all the bad influences 
that accompany towns of greater size and railroad 
activities. 

The surrounding foothills of the Ozark Moun- 
tains lend picturesqueness and beauty, as well as 
health-giving atmosphere and spiritual uplift to 
the school; while the cheapness of schooling here 


OAK AND LAUREL 29 


is another added weight in the balance of favor for 
Maynard. 

There is a small library of standard works, to 
which any additions will be most welcome, as May- 
nard is endeavoring to bring it up to the level re- 
quired by the State for an A-1 high school. 

The high school work has been so planned as to 
offer the work required by the State Department 
of Education for a Teacher’s Normal Training Cer- 
tificate. It is desired to get full recognition for 
this work so that at commencement of 1923 the 
graduates may be awarded these certificates. 

Maynard has departments of Reading and Pub- 
lic Speaking and Piano; in these departments a 
Dramatic Club and a Glee Club are organized an- 
nually. The faculty consists of four, besides the 
matron. 

Maynard became part of the Home Board system 
in 1916. It has only one dormitory, which is for 
girls; the boys must board in town; the main build- 
ing has an auditorium which seats 150, and six 
recitation rooms. The fall of 1922 saw an enroll- 
ment of 146, with six teachers. A fund for a labora- 
tory was expected to be So eeG in readiness 
for this school year. 


Mount Ida Academy 


Mt. Ida is the county seat of Montgomery Co., 
where in 1920 the citizens persuaded the State Con- 
vention of Arkansas to lease a two-story stone 
building erected for a court house, that they might 
open a Baptist school. Two years later 165 stu- 
dents were enrolled, and the school’s success was 
assured. Its nearest railroad point is Womble, 


30 OAK AND LAUREL 


twelve miles away, and it is but forty miles dis- 
tant from Hot Springs, whose health conditions are 
known to the whole United States. 

This school is not in the Home Mission system 
as yet, but is being fostered by the state board, 
whose financial aid is invaluable to the institution. 
There is special equipment for scientific study, and 
instruction provided in all grades through the 
eleventh. 


Hagarville Academy 

On Little Piney Creek, a typical mountain stream, 
at the foot of one of Arkansas’ most picturesque 
peaks, is Hagarville Academy, in Johnson County, 
twelve miles northeast of Clarksville. This is a 
fairly good farming section, filled with typical 
mountain people, who will sacrifice—and have sac- 
rificed much—to establish this school for their 
children. 

Hagarville was established in 1919, by the Arkan- 
sas Baptist State Convention in co-operation with 
the Home Mission Board, because both realized the 
need of such a school in the west central section 
of the state. 

It has only a school building, on a ten-acre tract 
of land, but this is new and modern, and has the 
necessary equipment for what it seeks to accom- 
plish. 

There is the nucleus of a good school library, 
given by a friend; and it has been added to con- 
stantly, but other similar gifts are earnestly de- 
sired. The library fee of fifty cents paid by all 
students in the eighth grade and above provides 
magazines and other current literature. This li- 
brary will benefit the entire community. 


OAK AND LAUREL 31 


The faculty consists of four teachers, one of 
whom instructs in music and organizes the Glee 
Club. 

The location of this school is peculiar, in that 
it is at the gateway to a large section of mountain 
country, and many travelers pass its doors, many 
of whom become interested in the institution, as 
they stop in their journey and inquire its nature 
and mission. It is influencing a large section of 
country, and bringing Christ into the lives of many 
people. Twenty-one of the students were brought 
to know him as their Savior during the session of 


1921-22. 
Newton County Academy 


In Arkansas there is one county, Newton, that is 
not traversed by a railroad; thus the land has not 
been developed, and made valuable. Taxes are 
correspondingly low, and there are no funds for 
adequate schools. 

In 1921 a survey was made of the county, and 
from every corner came calls for schools for the 
many bright young minds growing up like weeds 
in every home. 

The little town of Parthenon, living up to its 
classic name, aided by its neighbors, undertook to 
build a two-story nine-room school building, of the 
native stone which nature furnishes so abundantly 
throughout all this region. 

Parthenon is almost in the center of the county, 
on a small and very lovely plateau, enclosed by high 
stone peaks whose walls are outlined in white 
columns like those of the historic temple of Diana. 
This plateau is reached by a mountain pass and 
overlooks the little town of Jasper, the county seat, 


32 OAK AND LAUREL 


five miles away. Between this village and Parthe- 
non the Little Buffalo River meanders lazily about, 
and must be forded fifteen times in the short dis- 
tance, which in times of high water is practically 
“no thoroughfare.” A highway is being construct- 
ed, however. The nearest railroad point is Harri- 
son, twenty-seven miles away. 


As this is a Baptist section, appropriations were 
made to equip and maintain this school, the first 
in the county, by the Baptist State Convention and 
Home Mission Board, and it was opened in October, 
1920, with an enrollment of 144. It has revolution- 
ized the life of the county; its students going out 
to bear into every-day life the precious truths they 
have learned within the walls of this pioneer school. 

The school property consists of twenty-five acres 
of land, which furnishes a good truck garden, sup- 
plying all the vegetables for the co-operative home. 
In 1921-22 a frame building for girls, containing 
seventeen rooms, was erected; two of the teachers 
built houses for themselves. A Delco light plant 
was installed, and arrangements made with a mer- 
chant to place boys in the second story of a store 
building owned by him. They must provide all fur- 
nishings for their rooms; and will take their meals 
at the co-operative home for girls. 

Water is obtained from a spring out of the moun- 
tains; the boring of a well was attempted, but 
caves were encountered, and the enterprise was 
abandoned. The mountains here contain many 
caves, some of them proving of great interest and 
attracting much attention from the world outside. 

The religious influence of Newton County Acad- 
emy is tremendous. People call it “The School,” 
and attendance there is the aim and desire of every 
intelligent boy and girl in the county. More than 


OAKVAND LAUREL 33 


sixty students were won to Christ in the school’s 
first two years; a good church has been organized, 
a strong Sunday school and B. Y. P. U. maintained. 
Before this school was begun there was not a pas- 
tor of any denomination in Newton County. Such. 
strides in accomplishment leave the thinker breath- 
less before the possibilities of the future for this 
school. 


Miss Minnie Cochran, the guiding hand and wise 
head of this school, has never ceased to preside over 
its destinies, though her name no longer appears 
as its principal. She is Mrs. J. E. Wood, and as- 
sists her husband in directing the many activities 
which formerly were her responsibility alone. To 
her consecration and energy the school may well be 
said to owe its progress and efficiency. No moun- 
tain boy or girl is rejected at Newton County 
Academy because of lack of funds. Somehow it 
will be made possible for every worthy applicant 
to remain. 

The glory of Greece’s Parthenon lies in the 
shadows of the past, but this new Parthenon of 
the Ozarks is just awakening to a beauty of soul 
and spirit which could never be possible to that 
monument of marble. If Baptists of Arkansas and 
the South perceive and seize the opportunity for 
service to the kingdom, this splendid young school 
will be provided with all the equipment it needs, 
that its pioneer efforts may be enlarged and blessed 
with every passing year. 


Carroll County Institute 


The little town of Blue Eye, Missouri, lies along 
the state boundary line, with its postoffice on the 


34 OAK AND LAUREL 


Missouri side, and its Baptist school on the Arkan- 
sas side. 

The Arkansas State and Home Mission Boards 
co-operated in the establishment of Carroll County 
Institute; it is twelve miles northeast of Urbanette 
on the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad, and 
sixteen miles from Cricket or Omaha on the White 
River Division. 

Since 1918 this institution has grown and flour- 
ished, with Miss Lou Ella Austin at its head. 

A brick administration building of two stories 
and basement, with modern desks and average 
equipment; and a co-operative home for girls, are 
the structures that grace the ten-acre campus, 
which is well drained and beautifully situated. 

The girls live in this home as in a large family, 
sharing its duties and expense. Any girl can pay 
part or all of her board by bringing provisions from 
home, if they are such as are needed. The house- 
keeper furnishes a receipt for such supplies. 

Boys can secure board in the town for $16.00 a 
month and work for one or two hours a day can be 
obtained. 

This is a twelve-year school, the tuition ranging 
from $2.00 a month in the first five grades, to $5.00 
in the senior high school. 

Basketball and other games and sports are pro- 
vided by an Athletic Committee. This and all so- 
cial, literary and religious activities are under the 
control and management of the Baptist Student 
Union, organized in 1922. 

All phases of Christian training receive attention. 

The faculty consists of Miss Austin, and three 
assistants, one of whom teaches Home Economics 
and Expression. 


“Thou waterest the ridges abundantly—and the lit- 
tle hills rejoice on every side (Psalm 65). 


CHAPTER II 


GEORGIA 


Hiawassee 


“There’s my man!” exclaimed young Fred Mc- 
Connell, when he heard eighteen-year-old George 
Truett teaching in the public school of Hiawassee. 
McConnell, a Hiawassee boy at home from the 
seminary at Louisville, had promised some young 
men to open a way for them to get higher educa- 
tion. He knew not where to look for a teacher for 
them, when lo! here was the very man within reach. 

Young Truett had come to Hiawassee a short 
while previously, and applied to Dr. McConnell’s 
father for a school. There had been disagreement 
among the county school commissioners, as to the 
location of the public schools of the county and no 
compromise seemed in sight; so Truett was told 
that if he could maintain a school he might try his 
hand. Obviously his failure was a foregone con- 
clusion. But to the surprise of everybody, the 
school remained open, and prospered; and when 
young F. C. McConnell went in and listened one 
eventful day, he realized that here was a born teach- 
er, and determined to secure him for his proposed 
school for prospective preachers. 

We know that he succeeded, and George Truett 
became the first principal of Hiawassee High 


(35) 


36 OAK AND LAUREL 


School, in 1884. There was little in those first days, 
but an enthusiastic teacher and a few eager, earnest 
young men; but F. C. McConnell had seen a vision 
and started an undertaking, and he kept on. 

Hiawassee village was then, no doubt, very much 
what it is now; a quiet little cluster of homes with 
a tavern and a few “stores.” The people made 
room in their homes for the young men and after 
a while, girls, too, who came to school at the new 
academy. One academic building was erected— 
a white frame with a bell-tower, which performs the 
same service to-day as then; electric lights furnish 
the only modern touch. From the top of a long, 
very gradual open slope, this old school house looks 
down upon the sleepy village and, half-way between 
the old brick dwelling which has long served as res- 
idence for the teachers and a handful of boarding- 
pupils who could find no place in the town. This 
house has well and honorably served its generation, 
and should now be torn down, for it is damp and de- 
crepit and disfiguring to the school premises. A 
dormitory is being erected about half way up the 
slope, which will provide a suitable shelter for stu- 
dents and faculty. 

Hiawassee has a most favorable location, if sepa- 
ration from city life is the criterion. It is twenty- 
five miles from Murphy, N. C., twenty-eight from 
Clayton, eight from Haysville, N. C., and twenty- 
two from Robertstown, where the mail is obtained. 
It is two thousand feet above sea level, and sur- 
rounded by the rich valley of the Hiawassee River; 
mountain peaks are everywhere close by, some of 
'them the highest in the state. Towns County has 
‘no negroes, and i is well settled; this school draws on 
four or five counties, some of them in North Caro- 
lina. A splendid highway. now being constructed 


OAK AND LAUREL 37 


across the Blue Ridge direct from Clayton, and 
returning to Atlanta by way of Young Harris and 
Dahlonega, will no doubt bring many visitors to 
this quiet home of education, where many of our 
good and great have spent valuable years. 

Following Dr. Truett’s administration, T. W. 
O’Kelley and John G. Harrison shared the princi- 
pal’s office; then Dr. Harrison served four years 
alone, building the school up to the standing of a 
good high school. Following him came A. B. 
Greene, who spent nineteen effectual years at Hia- 
wassee. Thus it will be observed that this school had 
in its youth high standards and noble standard bear- 
ers and all through the years F. C. McConnell, him- 
self growing in grace and favor both human and di- 
vine, stood steadfastly by with the school’s interests 
on his devoted heart. To-day, as questions of 
change and adjustment arise, he is honored by the 
charge of the mountain schools of the state, being 
the head of a committee to look after them. Every 
one knows there is no man anywhere who loves 
mountain boys and girls as he does, or who will 
administer their school affairs with greater im- 
partiality. 

To-day old Hiawassee stands at a critical junc- 
ture. She needs so many things, and so many 
schools are springing up about her; but the loyal 
hearts of her sons and daughters clamor for her 
maintenance. She is the oldest Baptist Mountain 
School, second in age only to Mercer University in 
the Mercer system of Georgia; she had six minis- 
terial students last year, and that is a healthy 
average. 

Now that the state highway is rolling past her 
hill-top, and the world is coming to her very door, 
thus rendering her easy of access and making the 


38 OAK AND LAUREL 


lives of her faculty less the lives of hermits, 
Hiawassee will take on new life, and the old hill- 
side will see many changes and improvements; 
water, sewerage, telephones, athletic equipment, a 
domestic science department worthy of the name, 
central heating; these things shall come to old 
Hiawassee, and the daisy-covered campus shall be 
thronged with visitors at Commencement, the pow- 
erful and the rich of Georgia, who come back to 
honor and be honored by their Alma Mater. 

Baptists of Georgia should emulate some of their 
brethren in other states, as far as being more in- 
formed about and interested in their mountain 
schools is concerned. Missionary societies and as- 
sociational unions can create scholarships, contrib- 
ute to pantries and store-rooms; furniture and pic- 
tures and draperies and always books, may be be- 
stowed upon our mountain schools, to their great 
pleasure and advantage. The State and Home Mis- 
sion Boards carry a heavy burden in these schools, 
and are unable to provide all that they desire, and 
sometimes even the necessary equipment. It is a 
shame for the people of a great state and a great 
denomination not to show more lively and tender 
interest in so great an asset as the minds of moun- 
tain boys and girls. 


Bleckley Memorial Institute 


Beautiful for situation indeed, is Bleckley Memor- 
ial Institute! Just a mile or so out of the pretty 
town of Clayton, on the picturesque Tallulah Falls 
Railroad, yet aloof upon its height as ever Simon 
Stylites was upon his pillar—and almost as difficult 
of access. No wonder these lads and lassies have 
glowing cheeks and sturdy limbs. This climb to 


OAK AND LAUREL 39 


the place of learning every day is in itself a training. 
But how the climber is rewarded, not merely by 
“Excelsior,” but by splendor unexceeded, when he 
has reached the top. 

The mountains circle silently; Screamer, Little 
screamer, the Pinnacle, Black Rock, Scott’s Creek 
‘Mountain and Charles. A thunder storm hangs yon- 
der over Black Rock; lightning cleaves it, brilliant 
and startling; its inky clouds belch forth sullen 
boomings; the torrents pour from it in a vast and 
wonderful panorama, while here on the school 
mountain, sunshine glows warmly, and birds sing 
uninterruptedly. The storm is like some screened 
picture, distant and unreal. 


This school, so happily placed, was made a Bap- 
tist institution through the influence of some of the 
best loved Baptist women in Georgia; Mrs. A. J. 
Orme, Senior, of blessed memory; her daughter 
Miss Evelyn, Miss Emma Amos, and Miss Grace 
Landrum, Mrs. S. D. Lee, Miss Ella Powell, Mrs. 
M. L. Duggan and others, of whom Dr. L. G. Hard- 
man was one. People who frequented these moun- 
tains every summer saw the need of such a school, 
and pressed its establishment. In 1910 Mrs. Logan 
E. Bleckley, while building her summer home in 
Clayton, became very much interested, and gave 
about six thousand dollars toward its establishment. 
Hence its name. Mr. J. F. Earl, of Clayton, also 
gave liberally, providing the location, and paying 
for the foundation of the building. Some other citt- 
zens of Clayton contributing also, the work was 
begun, but it was not completed until after it be- 
came a part of the Home Mission Board system 
in 1912, being completed by funds from the Georgia 
State Board. 


40 OAK AND LAUREL 


The main building is a very handsome and im- 
posing white frame structure of two stories with 
square Doric columns running its entire height in 
front. On the first floor are six large classrooms 
and a library; upstairs is a splendid spacious audi- 
torium, with a large stage and two dressing rooms; 
but absolutely unfurnished save for a piano and 
some few chairs, eked out by rude plank benches for 
the students to occupy. Most of these students are 
at present in primary and grammar grades, being 
as young as five years old. There is just a scatter- 
ing handful of high school boys and girls; no doubt 
the mid-year attendance is better, for this is true of 
most mountain schools. Bleckley Memorial, how- 
ever, is somewhat cramped, in that Clayton main- 
tains a fine, free public school, at its very doors; and 
just fourteen miles through the mountains by a very 
good mountain road, lies Longcreek Academy, in 
South Carolina. 

It has its advantages, however, in being near the 
railroad, and in the neighborhood of many resorts, 
whose patrons drive about the country and acquaint 
themselves with the school, to its great advantage. 
Telegraph and telephone and access to drugstore 
and doctors give a feeling of safety and assurance. 


The grounds are in general just as Nature left 
them; climbing paths, mid oak growth and great 
stumps, and occasional rocks and loose stones, 
decorate the slopes. Electric lights swinging high 
overhead, assist the unfamiliar visitor who attempts 
to reach the school by night; but early hours are 
the rule, and any one belated would better stop a 
few hundred yards away down the road, and drive 
up the well-kept slope to the Earl House whose 
capable chatelaine loves the school, and provides 


OAK AND LAUREL 41 


work in her summer hostelry for the girls who want 
to earn their way. 

The president, or principal, and his wife have 
rooms in the girls’ dormitory which is a home-like 
frame house half-way up the hill. This was built 
by the Home Board. Here the little boys are quar- 
tered also,—a wise arrangement, by which they 
are under the direct supervision of the older girls 
and teacher. The older boys live in another cot- 
tage, farther down, near the road, and an elderly 
woman acts as matron there. 

These dormitories, provided by the Home Mission 
Board, are heated by stoves and fireplaces, and the 
dining-room is rather small, but quite cozy. Most 
of these children have their washing done at home, 
except those who come from a distance. 

In 1921-22 eighty children were enrolled at differ- 
ent times during the year. Of these twenty-four 
were from Clayton, eleven from Atlanta, seven 
from Macon, three from Florida, five from Savan- 
nah, nine from Commerce, six from Rabun Gap and 
Mountain City, one from Cornelia. Board here is 
only $3.00 per week, and tuition $4.50 per month, 
and other expenses vary; but there are some tasks 
at which a girl or boy may earn what is needed. 

The primary and grammar grades at Bleckley 
conform to the state curricula; for the high school 
department, there is Bible, English, Latin, Mathe- 
matics, French, History and Science; no Domestic 
Science or Manual Training. The 1922-23 faculty 
has two Bessie Tift graduates, and the Degen iS 
an alumnus of Furman. 

Chapel exercises are held every day, and prayer 
meeting in each of the dormitories, at which teach- 
ersyare present. b.Y.P:U;, YoWeAi sands Mission 
Study Classes develop the students in Christian ac- 


42 OAK AND LAUREL 


tivity. Church and Sunday school are attended 
every Sunday, as in all the schools. 

The girls wear uniform middy suits in public, 
but may dress as they please for school. Tennis, 
basketball and baseball are encouraged. Two liter- 
ary societies are maintained, membership in one of 
which is required. Several medals are offered. 
There is a library, being enlarged as fast as possible, 
and a reading-room. 


Mary P. Willingham School 


One of the greatest assets of the B.W.M.U. of 
Georgia, educationally speaking, is the school for 
girls which the Union maintains at Blue Ridge, 
Georgia, the highest railroad point in the state. 
Eleven years ago at an annual meeting of the Union 
in Rome, the delegates present enthusiastically 
named the school for Mrs. E. G. Willingham, whose 
husband had made possible this venture by the gift 
of land suitable for school purposes, in Fannin 
County, just outside the town of Blue Ridge. 

Seven years ago, September 5, 1916, this school 
was opened with forty pupils, nineteen boarding and 
twenty-one from the town near by. In 1921 there 
were 221 girls enrolled, 144 of them from the moun- 
tains of North Georgia; fifty-six counties being rep- 
resented in the total enrollment. In 1922 there was 
an opening enrollment of 194. Forty-eight of these 
girls were fatherless, seventeen motherless, twenty- 
two with neither father nor mother. Sixty scholar- 
ships, given either by associations, societies or indi- 
viduals, were awarded. Concessions in charges 
were made to twenty-five, while one hundred and 
fifteen paid regular board and tuition, $15.00 a 
month. No servants are employed, as these girls 
get ample practice in their Domestic Science work. 


OAK AND LAUREL 43 


The main building, a splendid three-story brick 
with beautiful Georgia marble foundation, contains 
offices, classrooms, reception hall, dining-room and 
kitchen on the first floor, and bedrooms on the sec- 
ond and third. Electric lights, steam heat and an 
abundant supply of pure water from a perennial 
spring, make life very pleasant in this school. Sew- 
erage and running water from a deep well, make 
possible the several bathrooms on each floor. 


There are four cottages, one used for Domestic 
Science. Tennis courts, and a cemented bathing 
pool are among the latest acquisitions. Across the 
ravine on a neighboring rise, stands the auditorium 
where each summer the State Assembly holds its 
sessions, an ideal place, high in the invigorating 
mountains, where Baptists love to gather, in large 
numbers. In fact, for years the accommodations 
have been very far from equal to the demand. 

Mary P. Willingham School is crowded to the 
limit, and for that reason as well as for the uses of 
the assembly, should have more dormitory space, 
and a much larger dining-room. 


The school property comprises fifty-two acres, 
and the land is used for gardening and grazing, or- 
chard, etc., as well as an extensive campus. A finer 
location could hardly be found, for a school of this 
sort, and the B.W.M.U. cherishes this institution 
with pride and thankfulness, and responds to its 
calls from time to time with alacrity. The rooms 
were originally furnished with linens, bedding, cur- 
tains, etc., by different societies over the state. 
Time flies, and these furnishings should all be re- 
newed. Of course many of the students furnish 
their own, but many others are utterly unable to do 
so. Gifts of silver, china, table linen, pictures, 


A OAK AND LAUREL 


books and magazines for the library, and so forth, 
are made from time to time by the women who love 
this, their own school in the mountains. In 1921-22 
the B.W.M.U. gave as an organization, $8,195 to 
this school, besides the gifts of individuals. 


The Board of Trustees, composed of conscientious 
Baptist men and women from various parts of the 
state, feels its responsibility keenly, and seeks in 
every way to make Mary P. Willingham increasing- 
ly a factor for good. In the spring of 1922 they se- 
cured the services of the state supervisor of rural 
schools to inspect the institution and suggest any 
changes he deemed wise. His commendations, after 
a stay of nearly two weeks there, were a source of 
gratification and encouragement to every Baptist 
in Georgia. 

Of course, W.M.U. ideals are made the standard 
here; the atmosphere is deeply spiritual, and usual- 
ly the session closes with every student a professing 
Christian. The training part of church service finds 
expression in the Y.W.A. organizations. Every girl 
takes part once a month on the Sunday night pro- 
grams. Great interest is taken in these meetings, 
and many seemingly untalented girls are made use- 
ful workers. 

The faculty of a dozen earnest women, with the 
president, is carefully chosen, and lessons from 
books are but.a small part of the instruction gained 
from them. A girl who spends even a short time in 
this school must receive impressions which will af- 
fect her entire life. 

Seldom is any girl refused admission to the 
M.P.W. School; even if she comes with no equip- 
ment, with all her clothing in a cracker box, or 
driving a shoat or a heifer-calf, her sole possession, 
as some have done. Room is made for her some- 


OAK AND LAUREL 45 


how, and one more happy heart is numbered among 
the girls of Mary P. Willingham. 


Blairsville Collegiate Institute 


Georgia has two other mountain schools belong- 
ing to the Home Board; these are North Georgia 
Baptist College at Morganton, with a student body 
of about 200, and Blairsville Collegiate Institute at 
Blairsville, with about sixty pupils. 


In 1905 residents of Union County whose hearts 
God had stirred to found a school for mountain 
youth, appeared before the Notla River Association, 
in session at Philadelphia Church, and proposed 
plans for such a school to be fostered by the Bap- 
tist denomination. 

The plans were adopted, and several locations 
considered, but as the Blairsville neighborhood had 
subscribed the greatest amount for a building, it 
was decided to place it there, in the county seat of 
Union County. The first building was completed in 
1906. 

In 1911 when the Georgia Baptist Convention met 
in Rome, the Blairsville Collegiate Institute was 
made a member of the Mercer system of secondary 
schools. Later it became a part of the Home Board 
system also. 

Blairsville is a village of a few hundred inhabi- 
tants, eighteen miles from Culberson, N. C., on the 
L. & N. Railway; by this route it has connections 
with all points north and south. None of the dis- 
tractions common to urban life are here, and the at- 
mosphere of the North Georgia mountains is at all 
times productive of health and vigor. 

The rules, curriculum and quality of teaching are 
such as have been mentioned frequently in these 


46 OAK AND LAUREL 


pages. One peculiarity of tuition charges is ob- 
served at Blairsville. Pupils below the first year of 
high school are not charged with any tuition fee 
until they have attended school one hundred days 
from January 1. In other words, a free term exists 
for practically three and a half months from Janu- 
ary 1. Tuition is payable from the end of the 100 
days; freeiterm asitasycalleds to, thesend otitie 
school year. 

A citizen of Blairsville presented to the school a 
perennial spring of clear, cold mountain water, 
which, coming from a considerable height, has 
power enough of itself to operate in the buildings. 

Friends of the school have erected cottages on or 
near the campus, which furnish homes for stu- 
dents who wish to do light housekeeping, reducing 
expenses to a minimum. 

All the usual religious exercises are engaged in, 
and the graded union of the W.M.U. especially the 
Y.W-AL and the’ BY. Pitaremanaintaiedmingsc he 
school. 

Blairsville has five literary societies, and a small 
library for which books are earnestly solicited. 
Athletics, Domestic Science, Music and Art are fea- 
tured in the proper proportion. 


KENTUCKY 
Barbourville Baptist Institute 


This is a mountain school, and also a city school, 
for while it is in the system of our Home Mission 
schools, it is located in the county seat of Knox 
County, Kentucky, and is principally patronized by 
the people of the town, nearly all its 1922 enroll- 
ment of 140 being Barbourville children. There were 


OAK AND LAUREL 47 


a very few pupils from the mountains—only four- 
teen boarding pupils in all, though there are 92,- 
000 Baptists in the region to feed this school. Two 
girls were earning their way, by helping with the 
work. 

There were pupils in every grade from the first 
up through high school, but the preceding spring 
only four children composed the first grade though 
there were twenty-seven in the second, and the 
third and fourth had sixteen each. Of course one 
teacher took care of several grades, but the best 
work cannot thus be done. It is unjust to teacher 
and pupils. 

Now, Barbourville, being a town of considerable 
size and importance, has of course its own public 
schools; and no doubt they are adequate to the 
need. The Baptist school has further competition 
in a Methodist institution, which offers a similar 
curriculum, plus a full normal course, which at- 
tracts many who would otherwise patronize a Bap- 
tist school. 

The plant is a good one, with three substantial 
brick buildings in very prepossessing surroundings ; 
the dormitories are three stories high, and have all 
modern conveniences; but they, like some of the 
regions described in our geographies, are “very 
sparsely settled.” 

Of course when this school was begun by the 
Cumberland River Baptist Church, there was great 
need for it; Barbourville was small and its school 
equipment no doubt was very incomplete; but at 
present this institution does not seem to be func- 
tioning as are the other schools of the Home Board 
system. These excellent teachers would no doubt 
be accomplishing greater good in some isolated 
mountain region, and this fine school plant could 


48 OAK AND LAUREL 


be turned into cash with which to establish real mis- 
sion schools in needy districts. 

Of course there is a good literary society and an 
athletic association, and the courses of study are 
complete and up to standard. In 1921-22 this school 
advertised a Teacher’s Department, and stated in 
the catalogue that “95 per cent of the First Grade 
Certificates made in the 1919 spring examinations 
of Knox County were made by students of this 
school”; but in 1922-23 there was no such depart- 
ment. 


The Commercial Department, under the instruc- 
tion of C. E. Bunnell, whose connection with Bar- 
bourville Baptist Institute ranges back over three 
years, seems to be a very strong feature of the 
school. It is very thorough, covering Banking, Ac- 
countancy, Bookkeeping, Commercial Law, etc., and 
a Civil Service Mercantile Course, as well as the 
customary Shorthand and Typewriting. 

No doubt this course is the main attraction to’ 
many of the patrons; it might be possible to turn 
B.B.I. into a business school in toto. Certainly it is 
not necessary to the community in its present char- 
acter, from a purely educational standpoint. 


Eight strong personalities compose the faculty 
in 1923; the equipment is very far above that of the 
average mountain school; the food furnished is sa- 
vory, well-balanced and nicely served, while only 
$16.50 per month is charged for room, board, etc.; 
yet the school is struggling for its “place in the 
sun.” <A foundation, laid months ago, for a new 
building to contain classrooms, auditoriums and din- 
ing-room, is still only a foundation, and there is no 
indication of its soon being anything else. True, 
the present dining-room, while in a basement, is 
abundantly large enough for all present needs, and 


OAK AND LAUREL 49 


the auditorium could be made to suffice; still the 
need for more classroom, if the school is to continue 
to operate all the grades, and for laboratories, if 
even the average scientific work is to be done, is 
obvious. 


Oneida Baptist Institute 


One who thinks cannot help contrasting the op- 
eration of a school like this with one of such vital- 
izing influence as the Oneida Baptist Institute at 
Oneida, Kentucky, just forty miles from Bar- 
bourville. This school has no place in this book, 
since it is not fostered by any Baptist organization 
yet it is Baptist—Baptist in name and inception, 
Baptist in teaching, Baptist in results! And as such 
every Baptist in the south ought to be—and if he 
knows of it, is—interested in Oneida. 


Here is a school begun by a mountaineer, him- 
self sick of feuds and fighting, who saw that edu- 
cation, and Christian education, was the only rem- 
edy for the terrible situation in Clay County. It is 
a tale thrilling and heart-searching which describes 
his winning over the feud-leaders to his views; his 
lonely vigils on the mountain as day by day he toiled 
at building his first school house, with a few tools 
fashioned by a blacksmith from an old crowbar. 
How he received one hundred pupils when, with two 
other men to help him teach, he opened his school. 
How, without assurance of any support save the 
assurance God gave him in his own soul, he kept 
on building, expanding, teaching; his only assets, 
his great faith and his persuasive tongue. To-day 
Oneida has a property valued at $150,000, four fine 
buildings, a farm, a sawmill and a wood-working 
shop. 


50 OAK AND LAUREL 


School opened in January 1923, with 256 pupils, 
about the present limit. Mrs. Sylvia W. Russell is 
now at its head. 

A little community of some three hundred people 
has grown up around the campus, which is exceed- 
ingly beautiful. At first forty miles from any rail- 
road; even now fifteen from one privately operated, 
Oneida has become a Mecca for all travelers inter- 
ested in schools, and numbers its friends by thou- 
sands. Would that our Home Board Schools were 
as thoroughly advertised! 

Up to this time the mountains have absorbed 
nearly all Oneida’s graduates. It is reported that 
in Clay and four adjoining counties, three-fourths 
of the district school teachers are Oneida products, 
and ninety per cent of the court officials; but the 
men who leave Oneida now, go to higher institu- 
tions of learning, and while they work to earn their 
way, they also frequently take the honors of their 
classes; and go out into the world to spread the 
seospel of generasity, perseverance and faith which 
they have absorbed at Oneida Institute. 

Kentucky may well be proud of Oneida. How 
many sturdy young Baptists have come out of the 
waters of the Kentucky River there, as a result of 
the atmosphere and influence of this school, we do 
not know; but we do know that it has been a pow- 
erful agent of good, moral, intellectual and spiritual. 
It is in the mountains, of the mountains, for the 
mountains, as all mountain schools should be. 


Hazard Baptist Institute 


In the edge of the Cumberland Mountains, in 
one of the most beautiful spots in the Appalachian 
Highlands, is the town of Hazard, Kentucky. Here 


OAK AND LAUREL 51 


in 1902 was established Hazard Baptist Institute, 
which has served the people of Perry County es- 
pecially, in the greatest possible way; it has fur- 
nished some of the best teachers to be had in east 
Kentucky, and many of the best professional and 
business men and Sunday-school workers in the 
state are products of Hazard, and there is no 
place in God’s Kingdom where such a school is 
more needed than at Hazard, Kentucky. 

This school is in a region of great Christian 
destitution; it is in the midst of a great coal re- 
gion to which people are coming from all parts of 
the country. Twenty years ago Hazard was only 
a little mountain village, but now it is a great 
mining center, cosmopolitan and modern, due to 
the coming of the railroad and the corresponding 
development of the mines. The school has at pres- 
ent two brick buildings, but is planning to erect 
another very soon. Two hundred and forty-two 
students fwere enrolled in 1922-23 under the in- 
eemictionmo:s seven teachers. The Bible is .-here 
magnified in every way possible. In two recent 
years there were between eighty and one hundred 
converts in the school. This alone (quoting the 
principal) would be worth all the sacrifice of lives 
and money, if the school should stop to-morrow. 

“Conditions here have been changed by the de- 
velopment of the mines, and the population is no 
longer mountain-born, but largely foreign: and 
while they need Jesus Christ inexpressibly, the 
people are not the class that needs the sort of 
schools our Baptist people are fostering. Mention 
should be made, in any account of Hazard Baptist 
Institute, of its loyal friend, A. S. Petrie, whose 
former students are the men and women who can 


52 OAK AND LAUREL 


now be depended on to do our Baptist work.” 
(A. E. Brown.) 


Magoffin Institute 


Magoffin Institute is the result of definite plan- 
ning on the part of the Home Mission Board, which 
in 1904 sent Dr. A. E. Brown to select a site for 
the school which they thought was needed in this 
region. He proposed to the people of Salyersville, 
Magoffin County, to establish a mountain mission 
school at or near the town, toward the cost of 
which the Board would contribute $4,000, condi- 
tioned on a gift by the community of $2,000. The 
proposal was accepted by the wide-awake people 
of the place in a great mass-meeting held at the 
court house, and in a very short time the money 
was raised, the site secured, and the building be- 
gun. 

The location is ideal, and very beautiful. On a 
gradual slope on the bank of the Licking River 
within sight of the town (a county seat) the build- 
ings are very conspicuous from the highway along 
the west side of the campus. 

The school has made varied progress; but al- 
ways its influence has been for good. Improve- 
ment in religious conditions is a marked result of 
the presence of Magoffin Institute. Dr. A. E. 
Brown says, “There were only three missionary 
Baptist churches in the county before the school 
was started: now there are eight; and Salyers- 
ville has a good average up-to-date church.” There 
was not a missionary Baptist in the town when 
Dr. Brown went there to locate the school. This 
is distinct from most mountain schools in that it 
carries the pupils from the fifth through the twelfth 


OAK-AND LAUREL =o 


grade, being an accredited high school of the State 
of Kentucky. 

The Administration Building is the pride of the 
school, of native stone, simple and sturdy in its 
architecture; it has a beautiful auditorium beside 
five large and four smaller rooms for teaching; 
all heated and lighted by gas. 

The girls’ dormitory burned during 1921-22, and 
must be replaced as soon as possible; the girls 
are under the supervision of a resident lady prin- 
cipal. The principal himself, with his family, lives 
in the boys’ home and has direct charge of the 
boys. This building is new and newly furnished 
and the boys are proud of it, and regard it as a 
real home. 

Volleyball, basketball and baseball are the ath- 
letics featured by Magoffin; the literary society 
work is varied and attractive;. compulsory above 
the sixth grade. Medals are offered and presented 
every year. 

One year of Bible study is required before gradu- 
ation; no doubt this course will be extended as 
soon as is practicable. 

The music includes Piano, Voice, Violin and 
Chorus work. There is a plan to install Manual 
Training and Domestic Science as soon as funds 
will permit. 

The rules regarding cards, tobacco, liquor and 
weapons are admirable; these things are not al- 
lowed to enter the premises of Magoffin Institute, 
and the entire Southern Baptist constituency will 
applaud the enforcement of such rules. 

Attendance upon church, Sunday school and 
daily chapel exercises is compulsory, of course. 
The Y. W. A. is maintained, one of the teachers 
conducting the R. A. and another the Sunbeams. 


54 OAK AND LAUREL 


The enrollment for 1922-23 was 110 students, 
with six teachers. 


Cumberland College 


Kentucky has one splendid Junior College which 
has outgrown the mission school classification, and 
stands by itself, a growing, virile institution which 
to-day owes much of its success to the Home Mis- 
sion Board. This is Cumberland College at Wil- 
liamsburg, now a recognized educational force in 
the state, and one of our finest schools in the moun- 
tains of the south. Its enrollment is between five 
and six hundred, and it has an endowment of 


$329,000. 


CHAPTER III 


MISSOURI 


Southwest Baptist College 


The Ozark Mountains are not wildly and majesti- 
cally picturesque as are the Cumberlands, nor 
sublimely beautiful like the Blue Ridge, nor yet 
utilitarian in their aspect, like some other regions 
where coal and iron are the main source of both 
wealth and industry; but they are calmly comfort- 
ing; domestic and familiar, as it were; close to man, 
accessible, filled with homes; ribboned with clear 
splashing rivulets. One feels, not overawed by 
their summits, but vaguely conscious of them in the 
blue distances, whether the bright hues of spring 
carpet the slopes and wave from every bough, or 
the voiceless snow covers the winter bareness and 
its chill silence bids the human heart reflect, and 
prepare. 

Coming over these friendly hills, through orchards 
of peach and apple, past homesteads and grazing 
herds, one finds enthroned in the town of Bolivar, an 
institution which furnishes the youth of southwest- 
ern Missouri with the preparation for lfe that 
every man and woman needs—Christian Education. 

It is a splendid school, Southwest College. It is 
judicially placed, in the heart of the hills, yet minis- 
tered to by the thriving town about it. Interest, 
spiritually, socially and commercially, centers in 
“The College.” Not only Baptist young people pat- 
ronize it, but those of all other denominations; not 


(95) 


56 OAK AND LAUREL 


only boys and girls, but young married people; not 
only fathers and mothers, but their little children, 
too; growing up in scholastic atmosphere, these tiny 
folks can hardly fail to imbibe it, and to regard edu- 
cation as one of the essentials of life. It is no un- 
common thing to see mothers each with a little 
child or two, sitting in the classes; the children 
juiet, attentive, inconspicuous, if a little weary. 
These people are so eager for education, the be- 
holder is inevitably impressed by this. In one in- 
stance a father and his son are taking college work 
simultaneously, and again a father with two daugh- 
ters and a son are enrolled. 

The field which Southwest College covers is full 
of opportunity. Its population is 600,000, of which 
75,000 are Baptists. There are few other schools 
to share Southwest’s opportunity, and she is reap- 
ing the results of the farsightedness of those who 
placed her there. 

Founded in 1878 by the Southwest Missouri Bap- 
tist Convention, the college was first located at 
Lebanon, but a year later it was moved to Bolivar, 
and was adopted by the Home Mission Board in 
1918. Since that time its policy has been shaped by 
that body, and some financial aid rendered. 

Bolivar is the county seat of Polk County on the 
Frisco Railroad between Springfield and Kansas 
City. It is an ideal college town with pure moun- 
tain air, good water, a community of homes and 
churches and good elementary and high schools. 

The faculty of twelve able Christian teachers 
works loyally under the leadership of President 
J. C. Pike, whose connection with the school ex-. 
tends back into its history so far that to most peo- 
ple, J. C. Pike stands for Southwest College and 
Southwest College would not be the same place 


OAK AND LAUREL 5/ 


without this big man: big not only physically—and 
somehow one expects to find big men in the moun- 
tains—but big mentally, and in character and influ- 
ence. It would be hard, if not impossible, to find a 
man in the whole southern mountain school system 
more universally loved and honored and imitated 
—and where is sincerer praise?—than President 
Pike. Dr. R. M. Inlow, a well-known pastor in 
Sedalia, Missouri, recently made the statement in 
a public address, that he would rather have his boy 
under the influence of J. C. Pike for eight years 
than under all the professors of the University 
of Chicago. 


He has surrounded himself with other “big” 
men. Dr. P. T. Harman vice-president, a conse- 
crated, gifted teacher of the Bible, has given his en- 
tire time to the college for four years, (this in 1923) 
and previously combined his teaching work with 
that of the preacher. Professor Hoffman’s six feet 
five of physical development only emphasizes him 
as a giant in the department of English and other 
modern languages, which he has conducted for 
five years; N. W. Smith has for seven years been 
professor of Latin and Greek here; Miss Ella 
Churchell’s connection with Southwest College as 
teacher of Mathematics is of six years’ duration, 
while her previous experience in mountain schools 
of Kentucky and North Carolina authorizes those 
interested to label her as one who gives her life 
to the development of mountain boys and girls. 
Miss Caroline Pike, no whit behind her father in de- 
votion to the great cause of educating the moun- 
tain youth, has refused flattering offers from secu- 
lar schools backed by splendid salaries, which her 
unusual accomplishment as a student in the Con- 
servatory at Leipzig brought to her, and has for 


58 OAK AND LAUREL 


ten years been the head of the piano department 
at Southwest College, whose patrons should cer- 
tainly appreciate her unselfishness and their own 
good fortune. Mrs. Nicholas has for four years 
been in charge of the Commercial Department. 

Thus may be readily observed one vital reason 
for the place of power and influence held to-day by 
this fine school. These strong teachers have iden- 
tified themselves with the institution, have toiled 
and served and given themselves to the work; and 
largely, under God, they are the makers of it. 

Although upon the beautiful campus covering the 
equivalent of about four city blocks, there is to 
be seen in 1923 only one majestic building, the 
resources and ability of the school cannot be thus 
judged. This main building, the workshop of 
Southwest College, contains fifteen spacious class- 
rooms, with abundant heat, air and light; equipped 
with the best blackboards, the most modern 
pivoted desk-chairs. The chapel is beautiful, though 
rather small; any unusual occasion overcrowds it, 
as it is planned to accommodate 400 people. The 
president’s office, (where a most obliging little lady 
presides at a typewriter), and an adjoining stock- 
room, are at the right of the entrance hall. A full- 
story basement is beneath the whole building, and 
here is found a gymnasium with its shower baths, 
where many a basketball victory is won. A member 
of the faculty acts as coach and general director 
of athletics. 


Two beautifully decorated society halls are pro- 
vided for the use of the four literary societies. 
That excellent literary work is done is evidenced by 
the publication of the college annual, the Mozarki- 
an; which edited by the upper classes, would do 
credit to one of the older universities of our land. 


OAK AND LAUREL 59 


The library on the second floor should have larger 
quarters, as its equipment is varied and abundant. 
More than 3,000 volumes are upon the shelves of 
the stacks, and beside there are provided the latest 
bulletins in all phases of scientific research. The 
local interest in this library is very deep and gen- 
eral. The Commercial Club recently donated $1500 
for the purchase of books. A reading room ad- 
joins the library proper, while in still another room 
are housed the government departmental reports, 
etc. 

The present chapel would make an admirable h- 
brary room while its gallery would furnish excel- 
lent lighting for art work. No doubt the earliest 
alteration of this splendid building will be the pro- 
vision of an adequate auditorium. As it is, all spec- 
ial occasions require the use of the opera house or 
the church. 

Across the street from the main building occupy- 
ing a 300 feet block, with a frontage of 140 feet, 
will soon stand proudly the new dormitory for 
young women. The foundations have been laid 
and the first story nearly completed, but lack of 
funds compelled the cessation of the work. The 
plan of this much needed building shows three full 
stories, with provisions for housing seventy-two 
girls, with all that modern ideas of comfort and 
convenience can suggest. Girls all over southwest- 
ern Missouri are eagerly awaiting the opportunity 
of “signing up” for one of these lovely rooms where 
work will be made a joy, and the associations of 
college life may be surrounded with a charm that 
time can never erase. 

Just at the rear of this promising beginning, 
stands an old frame building of two stories and a 
half, which serves as a dormitory for about a dozen 


60 OAK AND LAUREL 


girls and the unmarried women of the faculty. It is 
cozy and neat, and the meals served are delicious 
and varied, but life here is on too small a scale for 
such a school as Southwest College. Upon the com- 
pletion of the new dormitory, this building will be 
turned into a co-operative home for girls, where 
those who wish to do their own housekeeping may 
have a place to do so, rent free. No doubt this will 
be a privilege eagerly seized by a large number of 
girls who cannot afford board and room expense. 
The cost of a year at Southwest, exclusive of spe- 
cial fees and departmental work is $300.00. | 

Recently the trustees have purchased the Cary 
Hotel, in the town, for a dormitory to accommodate 
seventy young men. This will be an immense help 
in the housing problem. This purchase was made 
possible by the generosity of the First Baptist 
Church of Sedalia, of which Dr. R. M. Inlow was 
pastor; their gift was the splendid sum of $5,000. 
The building cost $13,000, but could not be replaced 
for $40,000. 

In 1922-23 the enrollment at Southwest College 
was 200: of this number fifty were young preach- 
ers, two-thirds of them married, and most of them 
having regular charges. Southwest Baptist College 
has for years led all the mountain mission schools 
in the number of ministerial students. 

Many of these students have moved into Bolivar, 
bought or built modest homes, and settled here 
until such time as their education shall be complet- 
ed. Wherever a spare room can be found in the 
homes in the town the students of both sexes are 
lodged. So Bolivar is very truly a college town. 

It is no unusual thing for a young man and his 
sweetheart to marry and go right on with their 
studies, taking a room together somewhere; the 


OAK AND LAUREL 61 


large number of these married students is a dis- 
tinguishing characteristic of Southwest College— 
and the number of college babies in 1922-23 was es- 
timated at forty; they do not seem to interfere with 
their parents’ school work, and they themselves are 
fairly reared in the schoolhouse. 


There is a strong college Y.W.A..as well as a 
local one; and a Volunteer Band numbering twenty. 
The spiritual atmosphere of the school is very 
strong. Doubtless this is in large part due to the 
thoroughly scriptural teachings of Dr. Harmon, and 
the determined attitude of all those in authority 
toward any departure from the apostolic faith. 
Southwest is the only school in the south that has 
published its doctrinal position, going on record as 
being soundly Baptist in belief and teaching. Too 
much cannot be said about the purity of the spirit- 
ual standards of this school. 

Southwest Baptist College is a fully accredited 
Junior College, and as such its grades are accepted 
without examination in the University of Missouri 
and accredited colleges anywhere. It is appreciated 
by people of all denominations, and from many lo- 
calities, and the prophecy is made by those who are 
in a position to judge, that this is the coming Bap- 
tist school of Missouri. Its beautiful campus has 
room for many buildings and its future looms large 
and splendid before the eyes of its loyal friends. 

The attention of the entire denomination is called 
to Southwest in February of every year when is 
held the Efficiency School, for a period of ten days. 
Leaders in all the departments of Southern Baptist 
enterprise congregate at the college; classes are or- 
ganized, mass meetings are held, inspirational ad- 
dresses are delivered to crowds that gather day 
after day to listen to the eloquent speakers who 


62 OAK AND LAUREL 


stand high in the hearts of all Southern Baptists, 
and a great spiritual exaltation is felt in college cir- 
cles and indeed in all the town; visitors come to the 
Efficiency School and go away deeply impressed by 
the fine spirit and thorough management of the in- 
stitution. Thus does Southwest Baptist College ad- 
vertise herself, and prove her claims by the sort of 
product she puts forth year by year: young Chris- 
tians than whom no stancher souls, no braver stand- 
ard bearers can anywhere be found. 


“Beautiful for situation, the glory of the whole earth 
is Mount Zion” (Psalm 48: 2). 


CHAPTER IV 


NORTH CAROLINA 


Sylva Collegiate Institute 


Sylva Collegiate Institute was launched as one 
of the plants of the Home Mission Board in 1898, 
two Associations co-operating in its establishment; 
the execution of their plans was left to a Board 
of Trustees, composed of leading Baptists of that 
part of the state, and Sylva was elected as the 
strategic point for the school site. Work was be- 
gun in the public school building, and in 1902 the 
first of the present structures was erected. 

On a beautiful height overlooking the town, from 
which is visible the court house half-way up a 
mountain on the other side of the narrow valley, 
and inspiring scenery in all direction, are perched 
the three substantial buildings of the Sylva Col- 
legiate Institute. 

The Cowan Building for girls, named in honor of 
a late member of the Board of Trustees, furnishes 
a home for about sixty and a room for guests; it is 
of brick veneer, two stories and basement; but in- 
adequate to the needs; so that as this book is being 
written, in 1922-23, a splendid addition is being 
built, to contain a suitable dining-room and kitchen, 
and much dormitory space. 

The Treat Home for Boys was re-named in 
April, 1921, in honor of Dr. A. E. Brown, Superin- 


(63) 


64 OAK AND LAUREL 


tendent of Mountain Schools for the Home Mission 
Board, in recognition of his interest in and activity 
in behalf of this school. 

The main building, once no doubt a source of 
pride, is totally unequal to the uses for which it 
was intended, and it is expected that soon a goodly 
sum will be expended by the Home Mission Board 
and the Trustees, in erecting a building comparable 
to the other two, and capable of caring for the 
administrative work of so large a school. Its 
classroom equipment is old-fashioned and meager, 
its assembly space practically nil. Yet hundreds of 
boys and girls, big and little, crowd here every 
year, eager for the training that Sylva gives. From 
and including the primary grades, all classes 
through high school are taught by a faculty of 
twelve people. Physical Training, Piano, Voice and 
Expression, as well as business courses are pro- 
vided. Some one hundred and eighty pupils reg- 
istered in the year 1920-21, of whom half were 
from the town of Sylva; a large proportion of the 
remainder from near-by towns, and a goodly num- 
ber from South Carolina. There is a South Carolina 
club, and there are also clubs formed by the stu- 
dents of four different counties in North Carolina. 

Attendance upon church and Sunday school in 
the town is compulsory; two B. Y. P. Unions flour- 
ish. Chapel exercise begins each day; no prayer 
services are held in the dormitories. 

There are the usual literary societies, holding 
weekly meetings; and the customary athletic or- 
ganizations. Before matriculating all students are 
required to subscribe to the following rules of 
conduct, which are posted in a public place in the 
academy : 


OAK AND LAUREL 65 


RULES OF GOVERNMENT 


1. We will not play cards or any game of 
chance. 

2. We will not carry concealed weapons. 

3. We will not use profanity. 

4. We will not drink wine, whiskey or any 
other intoxicants, except it be in case of dangerous 
sickness or prescribed by a physician. 

5. We will not accompany the opposite sex to 
or from school. 

6. We will neither write nor pass notes. 

7. We will not use tobacco in the school room, 
nor smoke in and around the buildings. 

8. We will not mark, cut, or in any way de- 
face the school furniture or buildings, and will pay 
for all damage done to property by us. 

9. We will refrain from whispering and talking 
during school hours, except by permission, and 
then we will not disturb those around us. 

10. During school hours we will not be away 
from our study rooms, except for recitation or by 
permission, and then will promptly return. 

11. At night we will not be away from our 
boarding places after dark, except by permission of 
the principal or his representative. 

12. We will endeavor to refrain from any con- 
duct, either in or out of school, known to us to be 
damaging to ourselves or the interests of the 
school. 

It may be remarked in passing, that a school 
which knows no infringement of such a list of 
rules would be so unusual as to be almost an 
anomaly, though all our schools have similar rules 
of government. 


66 OAK AND LAUREL 


The catalogue states that both dormitories are 
steam heated, yet requires students to bring 
matches, shovels and buckets. This seems incon- 
gruous. We note also that bedroom crockery is 
not furnished by the school, nor electric light bulbs ; 
this last is no doubt a wise arrangement. 

At Sylva Collegiate Institute all boarding pupils 
are expected to live in the dormitories, rather than 
out in the town. This of course must limit the num- 
ber of pupils, but enlarge the disciplinary possibili- 
ties of the administration. The cost of tuition in the 
literary course ranges from $27.00 per year in the 
primary grades to $46.00 for Juniors and Seniors. 
Table board is conducted on the club plan as cheap- 
ly as possible. 

Sylva’s altitude is 2,300 feet; the scenery enroute 
by rail or highway is picturesque and charming. 
The town itself is interested in and proud of the 
school, and the school shares its attractions with 
the town. 


Haywood Institute 


Clyde, North Carolina, is a pleasant village of 
some four hundred people, half way between Sylva 
and Asheville; something like twenty-five miles 
from either. It is just thirty-eight miles from the 
Southern Baptist Assembly grounds at Rigdecrest, 
and in the midst of wonderful mountains. Here in 
1893 a group of residents of this vicinity purchased 
a site for a school and presented it to the Haywood 
Baptist Association. It became a part of the sys- 
tem of schools belonging to the Home Mission 
Board shortly after, and the name of the associa- 
tion is perpetuated in this school, known as Hay- 
wood Institute. Since 1905, when it was granted 


OAK AND LAUREL 67 


a charter by the General Assembly of North Caro- 
lina, it has graduated a fine class every year. 

The history and growth of this school are in- 
separably connected with the name of L. B. White, 
who since 1903 has guided its destiny, with only 
one short interval of absence. His ideal for the 
school, his pride in it, his loyalty to its best inter- 
ests, make it the paramount thing in his life. The 
recent gift of $1,000 toward a home for the prin- 
cipal, by Mrs. D. M. Caldwell and her son, was no 
doubt inspired partly by the personality of this 
man, whose push and persistence have put this 
school where it is to-day. The principal’s home ts 
the first building that greets a visitor as he climbs 
the hill from the village; and very properly so, 
giving a welcome to Haywood and establishing 
pleasant relations immediately. It is a cozy, mod- 
ern little house with every convenience, and adds 
much to the appearance of the campus and the 
completeness of the equipment. On the same level, 
across the playground, stands the main building, a 
two-story brick, with an auditorium long since 
outgrown, poorly lighted and furnished. However, 
equipment for an assembly room can be neglected 
much better than for any other portion of a school. 
Haywood badly needs a new administration build- 
ing; some of its loyal friends may be planning to 
bestow one. Certainly it would be an act of real 
friendship to the school. 

This old building has done excellent work; large 
groups of professional men over the state and its 
neighbors, got their start here; practically all the 
teachers in the county are Haywood products. Be- 
tween seventy and one hundred Haywood men 
were in the war. Many students have gone into 
mission fields and northern universities. One alum- 


68 OAK AND LAUREL 


nus who has given thousands of dollars to Mars 
Hill College, got his vision here at Haywood. One 
1922 graduate in a competitive examination, won 
a four-year scholarship ‘at Clemson. Haywood is 
on the list of accredited high schools of North 
Carolina. 

The dormitories accommodate seventy-three girls 
and forty-five boys and in 1922 an annex for boys 
on a knoll adjoining the original home was oc- 
cupied to its fullest extent. The assistant principal 
and his wife live in the boys’ home, and lend that 
restraining, home-making influence which is needed. 
Both dormitories are good, substantial buildings 
with electric lights and steam heat, and the girls’ 
home has water also. 

There is the usual high school curriculum; the 
course includes six years’ study, two preparatory 
and four academic; but attention should be called 
to the character of the music taught. Of course 
there is the usual instruction in piano, but the un- 
usual thing is the encouragement in hymn playing, 
which will help to make these girls useful in their 
home churches; and the chorus singing, which is 
unusually spirited and fine. 

The usual literary societies, fostering debates, 
contests, and so forth, are maintained; Wake For- 
est College offers a scholarship each year for the 
highest standing in classwork, as it does to other 
schools of this class in the state. Outside sports 
are encouraged, but are not made the principal 
feature of school life. 

Girls are taught the theory of Domestic Science, 
but there is no equipment at present for the prac- 
tice of it; nor is there for Manual Training. The 
extras include Piano and Voice; but there is the 
conviction among the authorities at Haywood that 


OAK AND LAUREL 69 


mountain boys and girls do not need to be taught 
Expression, except as they are trained in the liter- 
ary societies; these boys and girls need the solid 
fundamentals, and they certainly get them at Hay- 
wood. 

In 1921-22 there were enrolled here one hundred 
and sixty students from some of the best homes in 
North Carolina and the surrounding states, and 
from some isolated homes in the mountains as 
well; but they all showed the same eagerness to 
learn, and were noticeable for their sturdiness of 
body and brightness of face. Surely this is a whole- 
some place. Good food is served in abundance, 
and a happy air of home-like contentment per- 
vades the large dining-room. 

Haywood shares with Yancey the distinction of 
being high up in the world. There is but 117 feet 
difference in elevation, Yancey being just that much 
farther up in the mountains, but 117 feet is negli- 
gible among twenty-seven or twenty-eight hun- 
dred! Girls and boys with delicate lungs should 
seek schools like these and be strengthened while 
they study. 

Up above the little town which serves it well 
with churches, bank, and six passenger trains a 
day, Haywood Institute stands in the minds of the 
people for good and great things; it needs what the 
town of Clyde has to give, but it gives to the town 
of Clyde vastly more. 

All the W. M. U. organizations for young peo- 
ple are found in this school, which will continue to 
turn out strong Christian workers for North Caro- 
lina and the South. 


70 OAK AND LAUREL 


South Mountain Industrial School 


One of the most interesting experiments in moun- 
tain school work began when twenty years ago— 
1903—a benevolent Indiana woman chose the site 
of an old bar-room noted for its frequent brawls, 
near Bostic, N. C., as the strategic point on which 
to build a school for illiterate children. 

This mountain district had discovered gold, and 
the rough element which follows such a discovery 
made this bar-room their gathering place; and life 
descended to the low plane on which “gold towns” 
usually operate. The little school, however, was 
patronized, and continued to flourish more or less. 
It was called the “Golden Industrial Institute,” at 
first, for obvious reasons. 

After the school had passed through various 
hands with varying fortunes, in 1919 the death of 
the owner brought about a crisis. The school was 
to be sold. Two young missionary school teachers, 
working for only $10.00 a month, felt strangely 
impressed to buy it themselves; they loved the 
work and the children. So they began with simple 
faith to pray for a way out. 

Prayer and personal appeals were so blessed that 
in three months they were able to open the school 
without encumbrance, having four teachers and 
almost as many children as they could accommo- 
date. Since that time God has continually supplied 
the school’s needs through his interested children, 
and inestimable good has been wrought in the dis- 
trict. The school is twenty miles from a railroad, 
and for that distance in every direction the moun- 
tains are full of boys and girls who have never yet 
had a chance to go to school for three consecutive 
movr’:hs. 


OAK AND LAUREL 71 


Dr. A. E. Brown, superintendent of Baptist 
Mountain schools, suggested that the name be 
changed to South Mountain Industrial Institute, 
and this was done. People from many states have 
shown interest in this school, but it is yet one of 
the smallest and most needy and least known of 
all our Baptist schools. Certainly it is the ideal 
school in location and spirit; its equipment should 
be enlarged to match the extent of the oppor- 
tunity. 

Six women, congenial, ambitious, self-denying, 
comprise the faculty. There is but one building 
for home, administration, assembly, etc., unless 
one counts the cabin in the back yard where the two 
grades of the high school department assemble. 
Bible and vocal music are taught daily to all 
grades ; practical training is given in housekeeping 
and sewing. 

Expenses amount to fifteen dollars a month, ex- 
clusive of instrumental music. Each boarding pupil 
is required to work two hours each day, and half 
of Saturday; but those who are working their way 
entirely must work four hours a day and six on 
Saturday. There are no individual scholarships, 
but funds of that sort are applied to help the entire 
student body at the discretion of the faculty. 

There is a board of trustees from four nearby 
towns, plus the two women who bought the school 
in 1919, Miss Ora Hall, the president, and Miss 
Bertha Moore, the secretary, of the school. 

In the fall of 1922 South Mountain Industrial 
Institute opened with twenty-one boarding pupils, 
eleven of whom were working their way through 
school. There is a student volunteer band of eleven. 
(What a coincidence if they should prove to be the 
same eleven!) 


72 OAK AND LAUREL 


There is a strong B. Y. P. U., which, with chapel 
service, morning and evening devotions, mid-week 
prayer service and Sunday vespers, helps to teach 
these boys and girls God’s way of living. Does it 
not seem that schools like this must eventually 
furnish the motive power that shall change the 
living conditions in such districts? Each boy or 
girl going out from S. M.I. I. must go as a valiant, 
eager crusader against all forms of vice and evil, 
bred of ignorance. 

The needs of such an institution are legion, but 
first and foremost is the need of an adequate build- 
ing. The value of the present property is only 
estimated at $2,500. These praying women are 
asking God for a $5,000 brick structure. The first 
$60.00 has come. “Faith, faith is the victory.” 


Fruitland Institute 


One of the greatest schools Southern Baptists 
have, in point of power and influence at least, is 
Fruitland Institute, about seven miles from that 
lovely resort, Hendersonville, N. C. 

The mountains tower very close to Fruitland, 
bringing their people to its doors, as it were, and 
standing sponsor for its work. In a wide semi- 
circle, Huckleberry and High Top, Green Moun- 
tain, from which the little church here was first 
named; Banks, Ball Top, Bear Wallow and Sugar 
Loaf guard the spot where their children study. 
Twelve miles away is Chimney Rock, that famous 
natural curiosity, sought by thousands of tourists 
every year; and a ride of only an hour and a half 
brings one to Asheville, whence all roads lead to 
Southern Baptist Mountain Schools, if one just 
knew where to find them. 


OAK AND LAUREL 73 


Substantial, attractive buildings, a happy earnest 
student body, fine, keen-minded, high idealed 
teachers; these are properites of Fruitland, one of 
the oldest of our schools, which, situated in a com- 
munity at once loyal, proud in possession, and co- 
operative, does a splendid work that is permanent 
and far-reaching. However, like other schools, it 
needs many things; first and greatest is its need of 
a new dormitory for girls and perhaps by the time 
this page is in print, the plans for one will become 
reality. 

Too long have the seventy-odd girls done their 
cooking and eating in a damp, cold, crowded base- 
ment; the teachers, patient souls, have endured 
this condition for years, but expansion and im- 
provement must come. The truth is, that this 
building was originally occupied by the boys, and 
the girls used the house where the boys now live; 
but its situation was so public, and there was such 
a lack of playground space, that it was deemed best 
about ten years ago, to make the exchange. Elec- 
tric lights and running water lessen the difficulties 
in these old buildings, of course, but all the rooms 
must be heated by small, wood-burning stoves, 
which increase the danger of conflagration, in an 
isolated location subject to high winds, as this is. 

System practiced in the dining-room manage- 
ment enables the girls, all of whom cook and wash 
dishes in turn, to get the work done with a maxi- 
mum of smoothness and dispatch. This old base- 
ment dining-room will one day furnish an excel- 
lent place for a complete laundry and drying room, 
which is now lacking; but many a girl will remem- 
ber it as the place where she quoted Scripture or 
offered a timorous prayer at breakfast, surrounded 


74 OAK AND LAUREL 


by the sympathetic faces and bright eyes of her - 
schoolmates. 

In this building a cozy corner room is kept 
ready for visitors, and one must arrive very sud- 
denly indeed, not to find fresh flowers on the dres- 
ser, fresh linen on the bed, and if it is cold at all, a 
delightful wood fire crackling in the little stove. 

The administration building, which is commodi- 
ous, well-lighted and heated by steam, commands 
the extensive campus with dignity. Its large audi- 
torium is used on Sunday for church and Sunday- 
school services for the community. It has an old- 
fashioned and old square piano, and plenty of seats, 
such as they are; and they are strong ones, but 
not the sort for such a place as this, being home- 
made of heavy slats, with a minimum of comfort 
possible. Plenty of windows, through which the 
sunshine pours and the mountain winds rush with 
vigor, Such singing as one hears in the moun- 
tains is heard here at its best; a magnificent vol- 
ume of song fills the great room, and thrills the 
heart of the listener. 

The boys at Fruitland are a sturdy lot; to look 
them over as they sit at table in their dining-room, 
makes one feel that here is the solution of our 
country’s problems. The Anglo-Saxon of the moun- 
tains, preserved and isolated until now; shall he 
not come forth in his strength and guide America’s 
destiny? 

The old frame building which was once used for 
all administration purposes, is now relegated to 
the uses of work-shop for the boys, domestic science 
practice rooms and occasionaly an overflow of the 
dormitories. It is useful, but a fire-trap. Its equip- 
ment for Manual Training and Domestic Science 
almost reminds one of Mark Hopkins on the end 


OAK AND LAUREL 75 


of a log! But the personality and resourcefulness 
of a teacher atones for many lacks, and work is 
being done, and results are very creditable. 

Looking at the student body, one does not need to 
be told that they are trained in athletics. And see- 
ing them on the practice field, one knows that they 
are masters of whatever game is for the moment 
the point of interest. However, lessons at Fruitland 
are the paramount interest; and here is the largest 
beginning-Latin class to be found in all the moun- 
tain schools, two large sections. First class Latin 
teachers are hard to find, but here at Fruitland we 
have one, in Prof. N. A. Melton, the principal, who 
is also pastor of the local church. For fourteen 
years he has guided the destinies of these boys and 
girls, and no more beloved school-head is to be 
found in the mountains. His Latin pupils have the 
old-fashioned reverence for the classics, and a 
thorough preparation for college work. 

The present healthy condition of this flourishing 
school is of course due largely to the wise admin- 
istration of its heads, who have not been changed 
for a period of from six to twenty-one years. The 
figure twenty-one belongs to the enviable record 
of Miss Martha Sullenger, the wise and motherly 
woman who has lived for Fruitland all these years. 
Pre-eminently a school woman, she is at once 
scholarly and domestic, disciplinarian and friend. 
Many a mountain girl has taken Miss Sullenger 
as her ideal; many a mountain home has been made 
over according to the pattern drawn in the mind 
of its daughter by this high-minded and sympa- 
thetic teacher. She has seen Fruitland grow from 
almost nothing to the splendid institution it now is, 
and she is known personally to most of the people 


76 OAK AND LAUREL 


of the surrounding country as she visits them in — 
their homes from time to time. 

Miss Sullenger speaks thus of the early days: 

“There is a pioneer spirit in the most of us. We 
like to remember and talk of beginnings. 

“Twenty years ago last August we began a 
girls’ home at Fruitland. Our equipment consisted 
of one plain wooden bedroom suite of three pieces 
and two chairs. In our kitchen, donated by two 
or three girls who had done their housekeeping 
the year before in the building, we found the small- 
est cook stove I have ever seen, also a rusty coffee 
pot and a good biscuit pan. 

“There were four girls and myself. We each 
furnished our own dishes and went in debt for the 
necessities. We had a most wonderful girl to lead 
our cooking; her ingenuity was great. Nora was 
the only person I ever saw who could cook three 
things in the same pan, not together, and serve 
them all hot. The first time we had a guest I went 
to the little store and bought a knife and fork, cup 
and saucer, plate and tumbler. That was the 
nucleus of our dining-room equipment. 

“At Christmas a friend in my home town sent 
me ten dollars, wishing to make me a little more 
comfortable. With that we furnished a little room 
as a reception room. Never did ten dollars buy so 
much. A rocking chair, a table, a straight chair, 
a rug, a lamp, and a window shade. 

“Our own people helped also in these beginnings. 
A neighbor woman whose husband had sacrificed 
much for the school, took furniture from her own 
home to furnish the principal’s room and the as- 
sistant teacher’s also. 

“My first summer vacation was spent at home, 
(Mexico, Mo.). This was my opportunity for 


OAK AND LAUREL 77 


gathering together the needed things. Our ladies 
responded most generously to these needs. We 
thus packed the first mountain school box, though 
we did not so name it. The house had been finished 
sufficiently to accommodate twenty girls. How we 
reveled in a new big cook stove that my home 
church had supplied! How proud we were of that 
first big reception room with its good fireplace! 
We had an art square on the floor and a piano of 
ancient date. We had shades, curtains and draper- 
ies, a good picture or two on the wall, and a few 
ornaments for the mantel. Our ladies did their 
best to make the house look like home. 

“The next year our secretary, Dr. A. E. Brown, 
brought Miss Annie Armstrong, (then our W. M. 
U. secretary) out to see us. A plan was made by 
which our schools have been furnished. Within 
the next year our W. M. Societies had furnished 
our home. Missouri naturally led in the furnishing, 
though other societies helped. Spartanburg sent 
us our first silver for the table. 

“From the very first the Hendersonville ladies 
have shown friendship and interest. Many times 
at real sacrifice they have responded to our call. 
Always in a crisis they have lent the helping hand. 

“So little by little we have grown and been able 
to fairly meet the needs.” 

Fruitland began as a public school in 1870 and 
became part of the system of the Home Mission 
Board about 1900. 

To mention its needs briefly, they are: additions 
to both dormitories, a building for Manual Train- 
ing and Home Economics, a library and a modern 
church building. 

All possible spiritual help and guidance are given 
to Fruitland’s student body; morning devotions in 


78 OAK AND LAUREL 


the dormitories, chapel exercises, a Woman’s Mis- 
sionary Society, a Young Woman’s Auxiliary, a 
Sunbeam Band, Mission study classes and three 
B. Y. P. Unions, beside church and Sunday school, 
are maintained and enjoyed. Special training is 
given in soul-winning. 

In 1921-22 the enrollment was nearly two hun- 
dred. Many of these are ministerial students. 

The curriculum covers six years, two intermed- 
iate and four high school. 

Tuition ranges from $2.00 to $3.75 per month; 
board and room: from $10.00 to $12.00. The use of 
tobacco in any form is—not discouraged, as some 
schools advertise,—-but forbidden. 

Music and Expression are taught as specials. 
Hymn-playing is encouraged and there is a Chorus 
Class open to all students who have good singing 
voices. 

One of the secrets of the fine spirit at Fruitland 
may be found in this statement, quoted from a 
recent bulletin of the school: 

“A country’s power centers in the home, and to 
develop the highest character, students need home 
life. A realization of these facts has led Fruitland 
Institute to endeavor to make her home life an ex- 
ample of the ideal home.” 


Yancey Collegiate Institute 


Yancey Collegiate Institute has an ideal location, 
withdrawn from the world of cities, and yet moth- 
ered by a thriving little town, where the comforts 
and necessities of urban life are at hand. The very 
approach to Yancey calms the mind and eat 
serenity of spirit. 


OAK AND LAUREL 79 


By train, whether approaching from Johnson 
City, Tenn., or Marion N. C., one leaves the train 
at Kona Junction—reluctantly, for the leisurely 
hours of travel have been one constant delight, 
as the shining rails led in and out of the mountain 
fastnesses along the splashing, gleaming, rock- 
studded waters of the Toe River. All this region, 
picturesque as any in the true Alps, is the haunt 
of fishermen and sportsmen, and the trains are 
well patronized, dirt roads being true to type 
through much of the mountain country, though 
one can drive to Yancey from any of the neighbor- 
ing cities in good weather without inconvenience. 

At Kona Junction, where the little station with 
its sole companion structure, a combination post 
office and restaurant, fairly overhangs the river 
gorge, nothing breaks the wonderful silence except 
the splash of water against rock, or the call of a 
bird, during many hours of the day. The South Toe 
rushes down from the higher mountain level and 
joins its voice and volume to increase the velocity 
of the mother Toe. A bridge here spans the river, 
and carries across those two beckoning rails which 
disappear up the mountain side, following the 
gleaming creek around one spur and another for 
mile upon mile. The Black Mountain Railway winds 
from Kona Junction up to Burnsville and some 
mules. beyond. | The-little creaking, careful: cars 
creep up each afternoon, spend the night, and slide 
slowly down again next morning. There is no haste 
—scarcely ever is a house visible; occasionally the 
queer little engine leaves its load and goes leisure- 
ly off up into some cove of the hills, and is gone 
sometimes an hour, while the few passengers are 
left to meditation and silence. In the snow of win- 
ter this journey must be magnificently, profoundly 


80 OAK AND LAUREL 


impressive, with the black water of South Toe slip- 
ping along between sheer gaunt battlements of 
snow, growing narrower and shallower, until it be- 
comes a mere runnel that can be bridged by a casual 
step. But that is miles and miles up into the 
higher levels. 

In spring, when the bluebirds begin to flash like 
streaks of sapphire from tree to tree, and the 
first pale blooms appear on these windy slopes; 
or in the autumn when frost has touched the 
oaks and hickories with the high lights of her 
brilliant palette, and waving goldenrod and iron- 
weed flaunt their colors at every turn of the track, 
this is fairyland; and the fortunate boy or girl 
who thus first approaches Yancey will be prepared 
in a measure for the poise and position of the 
school that lives thus on the heights. 

After several hours the traveler steps from the 
train into the every-day atmosphere of a pros- 
perous, friendly little country town, Burnsville, the 
seat of Yancey County. A convenient taxi will de- 
liver him in a few minutes at the campus of the 
Y.C.I., a mile away from the station. He notes 
in passing some goodly dwellings, handsome 
churches, a comfortable white inn, a court house; 
and then his attention is diverted by the exceed- 
ingly bad stretch of road that leads from the 
main street up to Yancey. This should be remedied, 
for it is likely to put the visitor in an inauspicious 
humor at the very outset. This humor is not im- 
proved by approaching from the rear of the Ben- 
nett Home, an old dormitory now used for Domestic 
Science and Manual Training classrooms, etc., while 
the handsome Administration Building is being re- 
built. When that is once more occupied, the Ben- 
nett Home will be relegated to the humble station 


OAK AND LAUREL 81 


of furnishing apartments for families whose chil- 
dren are in school, and for other overflow of the 
school activities. The building is not preposses- 
sing, and opposite it stands the boys’ dormitory, 
called the Brown Home, built in 1914, which is 
also approached from the rear, giving the visitor 
the feeling that he is being ushered in at the back 
door, so to speak. Once within the magic confines 
of the campus, however, the charm of Yancey be- 
gins to work. Even the Bennett Home, relic of 
earlier days, looks not so bad from the front, and 
the boys’ dormitory is a handsome building, brick 
veneered on its lower story; it has twenty-six 
rooms, steam heat, electricity, hot and cold water. 
One step inside the bare reception room, gives one 
an impression of bleakness, but this is true of the 
boys’ dormitories in all our mountain schools with 
one or two notable exceptions. (Reference to this 
will be repeated in a later chapter.) 

At right angles to these buildings already men- 
tioned, stands the Watson Home for Girls, a large 
motherly white structure, equipped like the other 
dormitory for comfortable living. It is three stories 
high, surrounded by great oaks and maples, and 
faces the south front of the Administration Build- 
ing, as the other buildings face the west front. 

The reception room is suitably furnished, and 
has a great fireplace to lend an air of cheer and 
brightness on the dark days. The dining-room be- 
low stairs is spacious and neat; here is also the 
kitchen and laundry, equipped for the students’ con- 
venience; there is an electrical washer and wringer. 
Of course many of these students live near enough 
to go home over week-ends, and have their clothes 
washed there. The students at Yancey are above 
the average in appearance and development; one 


82 OAK AND LAUREL 


has the feeling that this school has an established 
place, and a creditable history and that it is cher- 
ished and watched over by the people of the region. 

The Administration Building has been twice 
burned, and in 1922 a second time rebuilt, a splendid, 
imposing edifice, adequate at least for the present, 
to the needs of this fine institution. It contains 
Manual Training and Domestic Science depart- 
ments, practice rooms, library and office, spacious 
classrooms, well lighted and airy, dressing-rooms 
and large stage in the auditorium, which seats a 
thousand people; here are also two literary society 
halls, where the four societies combine, in brotherly 
and sisterly fashion, meeting alternately, and vie- 
ing with each other in keeping the halls neat and 
attractive. The two fronts of this building are 
handsome and dignified. Its completion in 1922 
was made possible by insurance, and the gifts of 
several loyal friends in Yancey County. It is a build- 
ing of which to be proud, and occupies the highest 
point of the campus. 

This school was twenty-one years old in 1922, 
as a child of the Home Mission Board. Its incep- 
tion goes back to twenty-five years ago, when the 
State Mission Board of North Carolina and the 
Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Con- 
vention “began a movement to establish high 
schools in such communities as would best serve the 
educational and religious needs of the mountain 
people.” But it was not until 1900 that Dr. A. E. 
Brown, then secretary of the State Mission Board; 
was sent to the territory of the Yancey Association 
to establish a Mission School there. The grounds 
had been donated already by S. M. Bennett and his 
wife. The people of Yancey County responded lib- 
erally to appeals made in a canvass for the project, 


OAK AND LAUREL 83 


and with aid from the Home Mission Board, it was 
possible to open the school in 1901. Yancey Collegi- 
ate Institute now owns several acres of land, and 
the four buildings just described. It is controlled by 
a board of eighteen trustees, composed of promi- 
nent men of the region, and Dr. Brown, who now 
represents the Home Mission Board of the S.B.C. 
That these trustees take their duties seriously is 
evident. The patronage of the school in 1920-21 
was largely confined to Yancey County; a good 
many came from Mitchell, where formerly was 
another of our mountain schools now discontin- 
ued, but of the 350 students only about one-sixth 
came from beyond the county. This speaks vol- 
umes for the local influence and standing of the 
school. The enrollment is necessarily limited, and 
the limit is reached at the opening of school. Only 
ninety-six students can be housed in the dormi- 
tories. No doubt an additional building could be 
quickly filled. 

Athletics are not neglected, while they are not 
made the paramount issue; a good field is kept 
up, southeast of the campus, and is usually occupied. 

Each evening, as in most of our schools, the stu- 
dents hold a prayer service. On Sunday they may 
attend the church of their choice in the town. The 
Baptist pastor is a member of the school faculty, 
and is regarded as pastor of the school. The Y.W.A. 
and G.A. create a missionary atmosphere among 
the girls, and two standard B.Y.P. Unions are 
maintained. Twelve students formed the Volun- 
teer Band in 1920-21. 

Five medals are offered annually, and presented 
at Commencement; three scholarships are open to 
graduates of Yancey, one at Furman, one at Wake- 
Forest, and one at Carson-Newman College. 


84 OAK AND LAUREL 


Sixteen men and women compose the faculty, 
representing the leading colleges and universities 
of the south in their degrees, and work together 
in a fine spirit of harmony and loyalty to the in- 
terests of the school. 

The courses of study are standard and thorough, 
covering every branch of learning necessary to a 
student who prepares for college. In Domestic 
Science and Art, the girls are taught to prepare 
attractive and well balanced meals, and to make 
garments for themselves, of increasing delicacy 
and elaboration. 

In Manual Training, a course in bench work with 
simple tools, is followed by the cutting and assem- 
bling of practical projects that are needed about the 
home. 

In order to receive a diploma in the Literary 
course, a student must have completed seventeen 
units, and have taken four years of some language 
other than English. 

Piano and Violin, Expression and commercial 
courses are taught by experts, and of course, must 
be paid for over and above regular tuition; but 
the boarding students are accommodated at the 
reasonable cost of $12.50 per month, while licensed 
ministers receive free tuition, and children of ac- 
tive ministers are given one-half. 

Such is Yancey Collegiate Institute. She sits 
serene among her mountains; 2817 feet above the 
sea level, and draws to her bosom the boys and 
girls of the whole surrounding region, giving them 
health and happiness, usefulness and broad vision, 
and in turn receiving love and loyalty and devotion 
from generation to generation. 


OAK AND LAUREL 85 


Hundreds—yes, thousands of men and women can 
truthfully say with the Psalmist “I will lift up mine 
eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” 


Round Hill Academy 


In the foothills of the Blue Ridge, with its lofti- 
est peaks in sight, with an invigorating climate and 
winters not too severe, at an altitude of 1100 feet, 
the town of Union Mills, North Carolina, is the site 
of one of the Home Mission Board’s most excel- 
lent schools. Chimney Rock and Pinnacle are only 
a few miles distant, and the boys and girls at Round 
Hill Academy can easily visit these beautiful places 
which other people travel many miles to see. 

Round Hill Academy was founded by the local 
Baptist church in 1899, and donated to the Green 
River Association in 1900, at which time it became 
a part of the Home Board system. This bit of his- 
tory proves that Round Hill has the dignity of age; 
a resume of its present conditions will show that it 
flourishes in all the vigor of youth. Its location is 
most convenient and accessible though it feeds 
upon real mountain life; Marion is_ sixteen 
miles away, Rutherfordton ten, while but one mile 
and a half separates it from Tate, a station on the 
picturesque C.C. & O. Railway, which has two 
trains a day. Telegraph, telephone and postal con- 
nections are good. 

Round Hill Academy has the customary three 
buildings, the girls’ home new and quite modern, to 
accommodate seventy girls; all buildings lighted by 
electricity from the school’s own plant. A reading- 
room, open daily, is supplied with about twenty of 
the best weekly and monthly periodicals, as well as 


86 OAK AND LAUREL 


the bulletins issued by the Departments of Agricul- 
ture of both State and national government. 

Suitable athletic grounds are provided, but stu- 
dents who are deficient in literary work are de- 
barred from representing the school in match 
games. Cigarettes are not allowed upon the prem- 
ises. 

The atmosphere of both town and school is such 
as will build up the spiritual life of the students; the 
Bible is taught daily in the school, beside separate 
courses in Sunday School Pedagogy and Mission 
Study. In 1921-22, seven ministerial students were 
enrolled. 

Thorough courses in Domestic Science and Art 
are provided, including household sanitation, laun- 
dry work, planning and selecting wardrobes, ete. 
This department of Home Economics has not been 
fully equipped, and gifts toward it will be most wel- 
come The women of the churches at Rutherford- 
ton and Mt. Vernon have furnished money for 
improvements on the main building, and various in- 
dividuals have made appreciated gifts, but many 
things are yet to be supplied in a growing school 
like this. 

Its enrollment for 1921-22 was about 150; its 
faculty included seven persons; the grades are from 
the sixth to the eleventh inclusive. 


Mars Hill College 


This is one of the power-houses of the S.B.C., 
where dynamos of energy and consecration gener- 
ate currents of life, flowing out into the world to 
vivify and vitalize the whole; splendid in history, 
potent in the present, and rich in future promise, 
this the second oldest of the Home Mission Schools 


OAK AND LAUREL 87 


is fulfilling its destiny as a moulder of Christian 
men and women. Those who gather, alert and 
eager-eyed, at this modern Areopagus, are not after 
“some new thing,’ but in a very real sense they 
are seeking Truth—old as creation and everlasting. 

Mars Hill College really should no longer be 
classed as a mountain mission school, for it has al- 
most divested itself of the characteristics of such; 
save this, that it still welcomes and trains the green 
product—the sapling from the mountain side; and 
it is still dependent on the Home Mission Board 
notwithstanding its 465 pupils, its endowment of 
$25,000 (more it is to be hoped, by the time this 
sees print) and its splendid lists of alumni, who 
will never see their Alma Mater in need. 

As a part of the mountain school system of the 
Flome Mission Board it is known all over the South, 
and the Board has been largely instrumental in 
making it what it is. It makes a larger return for 
the money invested in it than any other of the 
Home Board Schools. 

Sixty-five years is a long time. Sixty-five years 
ago, in 1857, Mars Hill College had its beginning. 
It ran along with varied success for forty years, and 
with the coming of R. L. Moore in 1897, took on 
new vigor and began to grow in a truly remarkable 
fashion. When Mr. Moore arrived on the campus, 
twenty-five years ago, it contained but two brick 
buildings, one dating back to 1857. This one was 
torn down in 1910, but the other which is about 
thirty years old, is still used, and is known as the 
Music Building. 

A student of those early days returning would 
stand in open-eyed bewilderment of Mars Hill cam- 
pus. There are now seven well-equipped buildings, 
and three cottages, belonging to the college. The 


88 OAK AND LAUREL 


smooth green sward of the campus, which is neces- 
sarily small, as the college owns but nine acres of 
land—is crossed by cement walks from building 
to building, and bordered by graceful shrubbery, 
while young maples furnish welcome shade in sum- 
mer, and in autumn flash here and there like bea- 
cons of scarlet, crimson, gold and green. The main 
road to Asheville northeast, being the Dixie High- 
way, coming steadily up over one spur after an- 
other, winding around lonely valleys filled with 
farm lands, brings one presently, almost without 
warning to Mars Hill, town and school nestled to- 
gether in a cup of the hills, with walls surrounding, 
“as the mountains are round about Jerusalem.” 

Seeking for a word to characterize Mars Hill, one 
must choose “Life.” Life vigorous, expanding, 
abounding. Also, life organized, disciplined, useful. 

The three dormitories for boys are crowded; a 
new one facing on the Dixie Highway is contem- 
plated, from 75 Million funds. 

The Spilman Home for Girls is the result of a 
gift by Dr. and Mrs. B. W. Spilman in memory of 
their son; which was increased by appropriations 
from the Home Board; a bronze tablet at the front 
bears the name Spilman, since this gift came at a 
time when it counted greatly. It has been recently 
enlarged, and is a splendid, convenient, homelike 
place, with every modern arrangement. At the 
back it is three stories high, the abrupt slope of the 
hill allowing for a large basement where is the 
lovely dining-room named for Dr. O. E. Sams, pas- 
tor of the Rivermont Avenue Baptist Church of 
Lynchburg, Va., when the generosity of his church 
made possible the first common dining-room at 
Mars Hill. This is but one fine instance of the loy- 
alty of the Mars Hill alumni. 


OAK AND LAUREL 89 


This dinning-room has a seating capacity of 
about 300; the floor is oiled; the tables are beauti- 
fully finished, and laid with a linen runner; paper 
napkins are used. Flowers or plants adorn each 
table, and the deep window sills on all four sides 
of the room are filled with blooming plants, through 
whose brilliant colors the year round sunshine 
pours upon china, glass and silver, and the happy 
faces above them. There is no suggestion here of 
a basement; and in fact, there is still another base- 
ment beneath—store-rooms for potatoes and other 
vegetables, and a well equipped bakery, with elec- 
tric mixer, warm closet for the dough to rise in, and 
great oven where hundreds of loaves are baked 
every day. The college is fortunate in having 
among its students a young man whois a real baker, 
so the school ovens furnish bread, cakes and rolls, 
for the town and its own tables as well. 

Adjoining the dining-room is the kitchen. Those 
words sound familiar but there is nothing familiar- 
looking about the Mars Hill kitchen. Its equip- 
ment would do honor to any modern hotel. Here 
are many sets of tubs each with its hot and cold 
water, its rinsing tub and its drain-shelf. In the 
first one only glass is washed, in the second 
cups and bowls, then pitchers, plates, silver, etc. 
One set of tubs is reserved to wash the towels, and 
great drying racks are over head. One is for the 
pots and pans. Here is a bread- slicer, a meat- 
slicer, a food-chopper, an apple-parer and all sorts 
of convenient machines to lessen the labor of the 
cooks and dish washers, for the work is done by 
students; not by all, but a certain number of for- 
tunate ones who are permitted thus to earn tuition 
and board, which amounts to about $212.00 per ses- 
sion of thirty-six weeks. The great ranges are 


90 OAK AND LAUREL 


bright and shining. The manager of all this activi- 
ty has her desk in the center of this pleasant kitch- 
en, with her records and her files, her menus and 
her order-books. When a meal is finished, many 
light feet keep time to the clatter of dishes and sil- 
ver, many expert hands are busied, each pair at 
its own familiar task. Boys and girls work to- 
gether; in an almost incredible time the tables are 
cleared and polished, the great trays of soiled 
things have been shoved through the wide windows 
into the kitchen, where other deft hands receive 
them and plunge them into hot suds. Two young 
people wash them and lay them in the rinsing tub; 
two lift them out upon the drain-board, two wipe 
and pile them on the trays; this goes on at each set 
of tubs, and before one has time to more than mar- 
vel at the smoothness of the process, the loaded 
trays are being brought back into the dining-room 
and the table re-set. Meantime other young folks 
have brushed the floor and put fresh water on the 
flowers, and changed the linen runners where it was 
necessary and placed the napkins. All is ready for 
the next meal. Now those whose duty it is are 
washing the towels and dish-cloths, and the boys— 
for boys always have this task, are putting away 
the clean pots and kettles and pans. There is just 
one flaw in this well-nigh perfect system; each 
worker performs ever and always just the one task. 
Specialization is very well, but there is no merit in 
specializing on how to quickly lift a hot tumbler out 
of the rinse water and put it on a shelf to drain; and 
that is what one girl must always do. Of course this 
system makes for absolute efficiency in the whole, 
and in so large a family, to get the work done witha 
maximum of swiftness, smoothness and speed, is 
the ideal, for these boys and girls have no time to 


OAK AND LAUREL 91 


waste. A certain number can obtain this work and 
from the viewpoint of the manager of this depart- 
ment, they must be those who can do it best. 

The laundry has similarly a good equipment. 

The old dining-hall across the street has been 
turned into a basket-ball court and a sort of gym- 
nasium, for a first class one is among the needs of 
Mars Hill. 

Four acres of land acquired in 1911 furnish a 
place for out-door athletics. 

Robert Lee Moore Hall, an eloquent monument 
to the beloved president, contains seven large class- 
rooms, and two beautiful and handsomely furnished 
society halls, these being used alternately by the 
boys’ and girls’ societies. 

The library building was the gift of Col. H. Mon- 
tague of Winston-Salem. 

It is an artistic structure of native stone, steel 
and cement; the equipment is quite what one would 
expect of such a structure; steel book stacks and 
substantial reading tables and a fine collection of 
books of all kinds are here; also the art studio and 
many beautiful examples of the work done; views 
of hill and valley, sunset and storm, finished by the 
hand of a true artist, show that the work of the 
Art Department at Mars Hill is of a very superior 
quality. No poor or even mediocre painting can 
pass here. 

The auditorium is a very ordinary building but 
quite large enough for any assembly here; gather- 
ings of a very dignified nature can of course be 
held in the church; this handsome edifice, next door 
to the Spilman Home is admirably arranged for 
Sunday-school and all other church work, and is 
really a church home for these young men and 
women. It should have a pipe organ, to be quite 


92 OAK AND LAUREL 


in keeping with the other equipment of this college 
community. Then instruction on the organ could 
be added to the curriculum of the music depart- 
ment, which at present offers Piano, Violin and 
Voice. This church is strong, as is to be expected, 
where the community provides so many earnest 
Christian workers. To quote the pastor, Jesse R. 
Owen: 

“There is not a member of the faculty of Mars 
Hill College who could not get more money for less 
work in other schools, but without complaint or any 
thought of self-sacrifice, they stick to the job here. 
With few exceptions they work as hard on Sundays, 
when no salary is to be drawn, as on week days. 
The stewardship of life is most beautifully exem- 
plified by these teachers who bring their culture and 
consecration into the work and worship of the 
church. How potent and practical their influence!” 

In front of the church, at the limit of the school 
property, stand two imposing concrete pillars, mem- 
orials left by the 1922 class. From these pillars 
the length of the campus, a concrete road seventeen 
feet wide has since been laid, adding much to the 
beauty. of the grounds. At the same time the 
chemical laboratory was equipped with desks and 
gas; eighty new desk-arm chairs supplied, new 
walks built and a new piano added. - 

Mars Hill is rapidly getting into shape for a 
Junior College. In 1922 it graduated its first diplo- 
ma to a Junior College graduate, McKinley Land- 
ers, of the town of Mars Hill. 

The North Carolina College Conference has for- 
mulated principles for the accrediting of Junior Col- 
leges, the ninth item of which says that, “The mini- 
mum annual operating expenses for the two years 
of Junior College work should be $10,000 


OAK AND LAUREL 93 


Mars Hill endowment, to comply with this, must 
be doubled at an early date. This is the weakest 
point in Mars Hill’s campaign for the Junior Col- 
lege Standard. Also there must be provision made 
for the equipment of a biological laboratory, requir- 
ing some $2,000. 

In fact Mars Hill should have at least a quarter 
of a million dollars in the next five years, to supply 
for boys, a gymnasium (now practically assured), 
Science Building, more land, a modern dormitory 
and an income of $10,000 for Junior College work. 

These demands sound very pretentious, but Mars 
Hill is doing a great work, has a great future, and 
must have a great equipment. 

Her glory is in the men and women she has sent 
out into the world. Some of them owe all they are 
and have, intellectually, to the thorough and effici- 
ent training received here. One list compiled re- 
cently contains six prominent pastors, eight mis- 
sionaries, four county superintendents, two profes- 
sors, one college president, one dean, five denomi- 
national leaders and nine men holding responsible 
positions in public service. 

There is more to the atmosphere of Mars Hill 
College than the classwork, the social pleasures, 
athletics, dramatic expression and orchestra train- 
ing; there is the pressure of the tension of high and 
noble aspiration of Christian companionship. The 
six B. Y. P. Unions are full of earnest, happy young 
Christians, striving, like Paul, to make the goal. 
These Unions have won the state banner every 
year since it was first awarded. The Sunday school, 
organized and efficient, has a place for every one of 
these young people. 

There are cash prizes offered every year for the 
best composition on some Bible subject and young 


94 OAK AND LAUREL 


ministers, as well as others, are encouraged to try 
for them. This adds incentive to study and to 
think for one’s self about the themes of God. 

Splendid editorial work is done by the students 
when eight times a year they publish “The Laurel,” 
an attractive journal, combining all the best fea- 
tures of a college annual and a school newspaper. 
The “Mars Hill Quarterly” is what its name indi- 
cates; it seeks to advertise the school while it sends 
out information regarding it to all its old friends 
and former students. This is free. 

In the autumn of 1922, this school opened with 
422 students; fifty of these studying for the minis- 
try; fifty-five in the Junior College. They repre- 
sent ten states, besides Cuba, with three men, and 
China with one native Chinese and the son of a mis- 
sionary now in China. Fifty-seven counties of 
North Carolina are represented. Students in all our 
mission high schools look forward to matriculation 
at Mars Hill Junior College. It is a worthy ambi- 
tion, and ought to be gratified. Attendance here can 
be made possible for any boy or girl sufficiently de- 
termined. There is a man there who at thirty-eight, 
becoming a Christian and feeling called of God to 
preach, gave up a position which paid him $250.00 
per month, to go to school at Mars Hill, doing the 
humblest of tasks and accepting help wherever it 
was offered so as to learn how best to present his 
Saviour to lost men. The light in his eyes and the 
love in his voice mark him as one whom the Master 
leads. There are many such, and from this marvel- 
ous school flows out an evergrowing stream of in- 
fluence upon North Carolina, the Southland and the 
world. ; 

Of course the center of influence in Mars Hill 
College is its president; quiet and unassuming, his 


OAK AND LAUREL 95 


personality is potent for good among the students 
to the last boy and girl. As has been said, the 
school issues a handsome quarterly pamphlet and an 
annual full of the interests of the school but one 
searches in vain its pages for encomium or biog- 
raphy of this prince among presidents, who keeps 
himself in the background. He has gathered about 
him a remarkably fine faculty, and there is a one- 
ness of spirit and a pride of possession about them 
all. May this truly great president be preserved 
to Mars Hill for many years! 

The Honor Roll of Faculty members at Mars Hill 
is lengthy and interesting; no school could fail 
to do good work whose teachers work long and 
harmoniously together. Note these figures which 
indicate length of service. President R. L. Moore 
and Mrs. Moore, twenty-six years; Dean J. B. Huff, 
English, twelve years; Mathematics Professor, 
Flora Harding Eaton, ten years; Pastor J. R. Owen, 
English Bible, nine years; Dr. George Wharton, 
mreekend bible: Matin, Professor P..C.-Stringfield, 
Miss Bernice Stringfield, Music; Miss Beulah Bow- 
den, Art, eight years; Miss Nona Moore, French 
PHomiciano and Virss Co). Bioeers, Matron, four 
years; Dean Cornelia Howell, Spanish and History; 
Mathematics, Professor E. L. Ponder, and Miss 
Katherine Gibbs, Violin, three years. 


Mountain View Institute 


Hays, North Carolina, has another school known 
as Mountain View Institute, whose attendance 
runs about 140. It is a Home Board School. 


“As the mountains are round about Jerusalem” 
(Psalm 125: 2). 


CHAPTER V 


SOUTH CAROLINA 


North Greenville Academy 


Leaving the Southern train at Greer, S. C., if 
he happens to have courteous friends there with 
an automobile; or at Taylor’s, the station near- 
est Tigerville, if his visit is expected, one who 
wishes to visit the pride of the South Carolina 
mountains, from a Baptist viewpoint, will have a 
beautiful and picturesque drive of fifteen miles 
in the one instance, or twelve in the other, to 
reach North Greenville Baptist Academy. Its name 
is somewhat misleading; it would leave the im- 
pression that the school is located in a suburb of 
Greenville, whereas it is twenty miles away, and 
derives its name from the Association. 

This, the oldest Baptist mountain school in South 
Carolina, and one of the earliest operated by the 
Home Mission Board, stands as an example of 
both age and progress. Thirty years old in 1922, 
it manifests a modernity and virility which im- 
press the beholder increasingly. 

Beautiful for location, it is, with the everlast- 
ing hills in the near distance; blue and mysterious 
in the early hours of morning, green and comfort- 
ing in the mellow light of late afternoon, the moun- 


(96) 


OAK AND LAUREL 97 


tains stand round about this school in silent witnegs 
to the unchangeableness of God. 

The village of Tigerville crouches at the foot 
of the mountain, hut rather as a cat would purr 
upon the hearth; no savagery is here. Familiar 
roofs and spires and a cotton gin appear among the 
trees and lend a homely touch to the surround- 
ings. Here is the store, where every afternoon a 
duly chaperoned group of girls seek the little things 
they need. Looking up toward the school one sees 
three handsome, substantial buildings: the admin- 
istration building flanked on either side by dor- 
mitories. That on the south contains a music studio 
and matron’s room, bedrooms for the girls, and 
in the basement, kitchen and dining room. The 
kitchen, clean and cozy, with its great range and 
shining pots and pans—pans full of seemingly end- 
less biscuits, the work of one boy who mixes 
up twenty-five pounds of flour for one meal. 

The dining-room has an atmosphere of neat- 
ness—witness the white clothes and the array of 
silver; and of cheer for here is a piano; and of 
companionship, for the tables are laid for one 
hundred and twenty-five boys and girls. A teacher 
presides at every table; girls take their turn at 
waiting on the tables and at cooking and washing 
dishes. Some wash plates when the meal is over; 
some cups and bowls; some glass and silver. All 
is soon cleared away and the tables reset for another 
meal. Some busy girls sweep corridors, porches, 
steps, while the boys are doing the same things 
at their home. 

The outside of this handsome building still awaits 
its coat of brick veneer. The boys’ rooms are neat 
and bright and comfortable. The iron beds are 
double-decked, occupying small space, and yet giv- 


98 OAK AND LAUREL 


ing every fellow privacy. Some of these rooms 
have articles of home-made furniture in addition to 
that furnished them. There is a splendid, spacious 
assembly hall in this dormitory, which like the 
other, is electric lighted and steam-heated. It is in 
need of furnishings to make it really livable. 

Several of the teachers have rooms here, the 
women having private baths; but though water for 
school purposes is pumped from a well below the 
hill on the town side, with a storage reservoir 
covered with concrete, and thus running water is 
provided for the dormitories, there is no provision 
at present for heating the water, though prepara- 
tions for this have been made. This should be done 
immediately so as to give these well equipped bath- 
rooms the greatest possible efficiency. 

The girls have a very nice-sized assembly hall 
in their building for evening prayer services, etc., 
but lack of space has compelled the curtaining 
off of the rear half of this to make sleeping apart- 
ments for five girls. All the rooms, designed for 
two occupants, with single beds, are now occupied 
by three (Can you imagine the third taking half 
of each bed?), and girls still arriving. One girl 
has the end of the hall, just a curtain insuring 
privacy. These dormitory rooms are marked as 
memorials by various organizations of the South 
Carolina B.W.M.U. 

At present the evening prayer services are held 
on the group plan, girls from several rooms gather- 
ing in one, and taking turns at leading. This plan 
has advantages since it develops leadership and 
praver in the individual girl. | 

North Greenville Academy maintains one of the 
W.M.U. organizations for the girls and one for 
the boys, and they are kept in touch with all the 


OAK. AND LAUREL 99 


activities of church life by the operation of a stu- 
dent church in their midst. There is a student 
volunteer band of nearly thirty. Besides this, the 
ministerial students preach to the student body 
on Saturday nights. It is an excellent way for 
a man to prove his consecration and his call to 
preach. It also gives him practice and poise. 
Occasionally the test proves too much and the 
would-be preacher admits that he was mistaken 
in thinking he had been called to preach. 

The boys can gather in the chapel for their vesper 
service and they also have the use of the library 
in the evening and morning hours, but in the after- 
noon it is reserved for the girls. 

The principal’s office here is a very interest- 
ing place. No one can doubt that Mr. H. C. Hester 
is a very busy man; walls lined with books, a 
desk with business-like appearance, letters, text- 
books, schedules, maps, etc. abound; and in one 
corner is a copper still, discovered by some of these 
very boys on a mountain hike; slashed by the 
revenue officers, it stands as a mute testimonial 
to the devotion to law and order which charac- 
terizes these Christian lads. By the time they 
become heads of families, life in the mountains will 
surely be revolutionized, purified at its source. 

The chapel, although possessed of a small gal- 
lery, and widened materially when sliding parti- 
tions admit adjoining classrooms into its extent, 
is far too small for the needs of this alive and 
growing institution with its near two hundred stu- 
dents. Commencement and similar occasions crowd 
it to overflowing and discomfort. This hall, how- 
ever, as well as the classrooms, is light and com- 
fortable, except for crowding. 


100 OAK AND LAUREL 


Chapel comes at eight-thirty and classes follow 
until two o’clock, when the mid-day meal is seryed; 
there are no classes after that. The administration 
building is a busy place during the early part of 
the day; the scores of pupils move about from class 
to class, lingering in the sunshine and exchanging 
merry words as they pass. 

Here are more young giants than one would en- 
counter in many a walk up and down city streets. 
Several have to bow their handsome heads as 
they pass under the lintel of the door; none is 
below average height. All are splendid specimens 
of manhood, not a one is “halt, maimed or blind.” 

And the girls! In all the charm of youth they 
smile at every corner, no cosmetics, no over-dress- 
ing; only the rosiness that comes of fresh mountain 
air, out-door exercise and plain sensible clothes. 
The parents of many of these boys and girls came 
here to school. It is a splendid Baptist propagation 
plant. 

Back of the building a beautiful slope is studded 
with young oaks. All undergrowth is kept cleared 
away, so that the grove is a pleasant adjunct to 
the campus; and at its foot a wide, sunny level 
is being graded into an athletic field. Sturdy 
young fellows work several hours a day, plough- 
ing, scraping and hauling. In the warm afternoons 
of autumn two football squads contend with all 
the zeal of opposing teams; splendid fellows they 
are, long-limbed and deep-chested. 

Supper, well-cooked and nourishing, tastes like 
the ambrosia of the gods after such exercise; the 
girls have had their share too, with basketball or 
tennis. 

North Greenville Baptist Academy ranks as a 
standard high school, and is permeated by an at- 


OAK AND LAUREL 101 


mosphere of earnestness and loyalty. Several of 
its nine instructors began their education here and 
their influence is large in creating this atmosphere. 

Miss Essie Taylor, beloved of the women of 
South Carolina, has for six years administered af- 
fairs as matron of kitchen, dining-room and boys’ 
home, and gives herself unstintingly to her work. 

Mr. H. C. Hester, principal since 1918, inspires 
devotion and respect in his boys and girls, and 
dreams constantly of the next possible improve- 
ment in his beloved school. No part of the one 
hundred acres belonging to the school but re- 
ceives its share of attention, and renders its con- 
tribution to the general welfare. A plan is afoot 
to dam up the little stream which flows through 
the valley beyond the athletic field, and create a 
pool for swimming; days to be designated for 
boys and for girls to use it. 

In this valley now, twenty head of fine cattle 
browse all day and furnish plenty of milk for the 
boys and girls to drink. Apples are here in abun- 
dance, too, appearing on the table at every meal in 
season. 

Several married men who wish to study for the 
ministry having applied for entrance. The princi- 
pal has decided to allow them to make a clear- 
ing in a grove of young pines just south of the 
campus, and use the logs to erect bungalows where 
they can establish their families. Some of the 
wives will also enter school. This departure may 
some day result in a little colony or settlement 
of students, as a part of the academy plant. 

Actual expense of attendance upon this school 
is little over $150 unless special courses are taken; 
and many students earn part or all of their tuition 
Scholarships are offered to worthy students of 


102 OAK AND LAUREL 


the Academy by Furman University, Greenville 
Woman’s College, Anderson College and the Acad- 
emy itself. Medals are awarded; two glee clubs 
are maintained, as well as teams for all the sports 
dear to youth and North Greenville Academy is 
famous for its prowess in football. 

Much more could be said of this splendid school 
and the work that it is doing, but lack of space 
forbids. 

The two schools to be described in the remain- 
der of this chapter are not now, though they have 
been until recently, under the control of the Home 
Mission Board. They are now operating under 
the State Board of South Carolina. They may 
be considered as largely the products of the Home 
Board, and as such the entire Baptist constituency 
of the South may justly feel proud of them. These 
two are Six Mile Academy and Long Creek Acade- 
my. 

Six-Mile Academy 


Now to Six-Mile Academy. But why Six-Mile? 
you will ask, and reasonably. In reply, you will 
be given the pretty legend of the Indian maiden, 
Cateechee, of long ago, who captured by a hos- 
tile tribe on Kiowee, and overhearing their plots 
against her people, sprang upon her pony, likewise 
a captive, and escaped, riding like the wind past 
this great mountain, and fording this pretty creek 
which flows beneath it, marking them as “Six- 
Mile” the first land-mark of her flight. 

Another six miles, and she had reached the river, 
which she greeted as Twelve-Mile; and so on, 
down the country she fled. Eighteen-Mile, One- 
and-Twenty, Three-and-Twenty, and so on and 
on, until she reached Ninety-Six and drew rein 
‘among her own people. The names still live to 


OAK AND LAUREL 103 


bear witness to the story, and Cateechee herself 
is commemorated by the great Cateechee Mill, 
where a modern mill village has sprung up to do 
her honor, in all the glory of fresh paint and flower- 
beds. 

So much for the legend. It is not prettier than 
the fair little town of Six-Mile, lying about the 
feet of Six-Mile Academy, truly its foster parent. 

In 1912 here was only a forest; but as the school 
buildings went up one by one, and the influence 
of this fine Baptist school began to be felt through 
the region round about, here and there a mountain 
family came down from its retreat, bought a par- 
cel of land and put John and Mary in school. So 
the little town grew, and to-day a finer commu- 
nity would be hard to find. 

The church, a roomy one, with complete grad- 
ing arrangements, is alive to its utmost member. 
A strong congregation that sings joyously under 
excellent leadership; a pastor young in heart, 
though his hair is silvered; classes of men and 
women and young people inspiring to look upon; 
a full graded Union, and a W.M.S. whose members 
all lead in prayer; this is the church home that 
is the privilege of every boy and girl who attends 
Six-Mile Academy. 

The school itself, with such an environment of 
love, pride and protection, stands like a strong plant 
in fertile soil, growing, bearing fruit, blessing all 
who draw near. 

Three buildings crown a gentle slope covered 
with oaks; to the north the boys’ dormitory, a 
substantial brick building, presided over by a man 
teacher, and flanked by the cozy home of the 
principal, who thus, without actually living on the 
campus, is in touch with all that happens there. 


104 OAK AND LAUREL 


In the center is the Administration Building, a 
handsome brick and stone structure, bearing the 
date 1920. Here are the office, schoolrooms for even 
the youngest children, since this is the only school 
in the neighborhood, and a spacious, well-lighted 
auditorium, much in need of proper seating, hav- 
ing a large stage, bare of curtains or any furni- 
ture whatever. No doubt these needs will shortly 
be supplied. 

The number of boarding pupils is small at open- 
ing, only about twenty-five, but increases largely 
in mid-year, as is the case with all mountain schools. 

The girls are housed in a plain frame house need- 
ing paint. Here are also the kitchen and common 
dining-room. The girls do all the work. The meals 
are plain, but sufficient and wholesome and table 
etiquette is quite evidently taught here. Blunders 
are smiled away, but not repeated. 

There are no electric lights as yet in the girls’ 
home, and they must carry lamps about; a danger- 
ous customs; but they are habitually careful. There 
is no central heating plant here, as there is in the 
main building, and the little bedroom stoves add 
much to the labors of the girls, and to the fire- 
risk. But a happier family could hardly be found 
anywhere. When they gather after supper is over, 
and the dishes washed by those girls whose turn 
it is; and as they sit around in the bare living- 
room by the lamp-light, reverently the Scripture 
is read by one of their number; prayer is offered; 
a few tremulous voices testify to God’s love and 
goodness, and young throats swell in the melody 
of praise—no one could help perceiving that not 
having, but being, is life. 

Meantime the boys in their home, under the 
leadership of their resident teacher, are holding 


OAK AND LAUREL 105 


a similar service; and presently only lights here 
and there testify that these young people are awake, 
and preparing lessons for to-morrow. 

There is a peculiarly pleasant and homelike at- 
mosphere about Six-Mile Academy, due no doubt 
to the character of the teachers. South Carolina 
is fortunate in having here, as in her other mountain 
schools, men and women of high ideals, broad sym- 
pathies and gentle natures, the value of whose 
influence over the one hundred young people daily 
within reach of their voices can never be computed 
nor paid for in money. 

Six-Mile’s nearest railroad approaches are Norris 
and Central, on the Southern Railroad, and there is 
one pregnant fact in regard to the location of this, 
or any other South Carolina Baptist school: the 
Baptists of South Carolina can tell you where it 
is. 


Longcreek Academy 


From the town of Westminster, up and up into 
the heart of the mountains by an excellent road, 
sixteen miles travel, will bring you to the attrac- 
tive group of buildings that comprises Longcreek 
Academy. 

One is at once charmed with the place: the hill- 
tops covered thickly with natural growth, the good- 
looking buildings, neat in their coats of green 
and white paint, the flowerbeds and winding paths; 
and most of all the scores of boys and girls, smiling 
faces at the windows, pleasant replies to every 
question, a general manifestation of good will and 
a desire to be agreeable and accommodating. 

Here we find crowning the central knoll the 
square building containing the classrooms; it is 
topped by a bell tower, to which the venturesome 


106 OAK AND LAUREL 


may climb by a series of the steepest of ladders. 
One is fully rewarded for the effort, by the glorious 
panorama of mountain scenery which lies spread 
out below. 

This first building was completed in 1914, as the 
result of a campaign launched by the people of 
Beaverdam Association, who realized the need of 
such a school for boys and girls within its bounds. 

Five teachers compose the faculty, with Pro- 
fessor Luther Raines at their head, and here in 
the mountains they work unceasingly at their task. 
There is no community here; the only store a cross- 
roads affair a mile or so away. This is isolation 
absolute. Each must depend upon the others for 
company, entertainment, diversion, help. Yet in 
this aggregation of more than one hundred boys 
and girls, there is no suggestion of loneliness. Each 
is busy, happy, energetic, thankful to be here. It 
is a hive, a workshop; there are no drones, for 
none such would care to come. 

Peace lies about the place, the peace that pre- 
vails where all things are silently growing, develop- 
ing in the Master’s way, and flowering under his 
approval. Off to the left, as one stands on the 
porch of the main building, is the boys’ home, the 
newest of the buildings; it is ceiled inside through- 
out its two stories; has a caloric heater, by attend- 
ing to which two boys earn their schooling; and 
many sunny windows, as well as a huge fire-place, 
where on cool evenings a wood fire may make 
everything cheerful, as the boys gather in this liv- 
ing-room. 

The boys take good care of their rooms, and if 
you should peep in to one after another, you would 
be impressed by the orderliness of their contents. 
Inspection is made by the matron every day. 


QARCANDILAUREL 107 


This is true also of Sullivan Home, where the 
girls live. It is back of the main building, and con- 
tains the general dining-room, pleasant but decided- 
ly crowded. Flowers on the tables and a piano at 
one end of the long room suggest a social atmos- 
phere. 

“Grandma,” a smiling and capable person, pre- 
sides over the kitchen. A glance within would in- 
jure no appetite. There are several girls who do 
not join the others at meal-time; girls who do 
their own cooking and dishwashing, and provide 
their own food. For them there is a separate place 
provided, a cheery room over at the main build- 
ing. Here also is a kitchen for them, and a pantry. 
Each girl’s shelf bears the number of her room. 
Their tables, laid for two or four, indicating that 
thus they are paired off to cook and eat, are neat 
and clean, with flowers on each one. Their pantry 
shelves are orderly and ready for inspection. These 
girls think it no hardship to work and study, too. 
They are grateful for the opportunity. 

One girl brought a mule and plowed the flower 
garden where now dahlias and brilliant cockscomb 
(or Prince’s Feather, as they fancifully call it) 
shake their gay heads in a riot of color. These 
girls are full of resource and not afraid of labor. 
Their bedrooms are as neat, and carefully arranged 
as those of the boys. Every door bears a card 
on which may be read the names of the occupants. 
The matron may go in at any time; she expects 
to find order, and she usually does. 

Longcreek is exceedingly fortunate in having as 
matron a young woman of unusual consecration 
and mental attainments. Physically unable to go 
as a missionary to foreign lands, Miss Bewley Hun- 
singer is finding her place among these boys and 


108 OAK AND LAUREL 


girls of the mountains, putting her life into theirs, 
in this school; and her ideals into their souls. Their 
devotion to her is evident to the dullest eye. 

The principal and his wife, both of whom are 
absorbed in the development of this plant, with all 
its possibilities, have a home just a stone’s throw 
away from the main building. 

The large assembly or living-room in the center 
of the Sullivan Home (a gift, by the way, in honor 
of a good friend of the school) shows the effect 
of love and interest and good taste. One can 
imagine the pleasant evenings spent here socially, 
when the snow lies thick outside, and the boys and 
girls gather with their teachers between the great 
fires glowing on opposite hearths. At one end is 
the library, scantily furnished as yet, for so large 
a family of readers; but Longcreek is only eight 
years old, and so much has been done! Some good 
pictures hang on the walls, evidences of some one’s 
thoughtfulness and generosity. The W.M.U.’s cal- 
endar of prayer for the month hangs in a con- 
spicuous place and loyalty to the Union is evidenced 
by the existence of a Y.W.A. and R.A. 

A little way from the other buildings stands the 
auditorium, like them, neat in green and white 
paint. It is a large airy, sunny place, with inclined 
floor and raised platforms along the sides that 
may be curtained for class use in Sunday school. 
Here chapel and all public exercises are held, as 
well as church, Sunday school and B.Y.P.U., for the 
school has its own church, fully officered and 
organized. 

Beside this, the equipment includes a mill, where 
all meal is ground, a work-shop where the boys 
learn to do carpentering and cabinet work; and 
a laundry where each pupil may wash his or her 


OAK AND LAUREL 109 


own clothes. Primitive? Yes, but primitive life 
produces strength, and God knows our country 
needs it. 

The boys grow all the vegetables for the table, 
for the school has sixty-five acres of land. There 
is a plan to install a loom, and teach the girls 
to weave the rugs so much in demand. 

The greatest needs observable here are greater 
teaching facilities, for there are only four class- 
rooms; and telephone connection with the nearest 
town. 

South Carolina’s mountain schools as a denomina- 
tional asset are away above par, and the Baptists 
of the South will watch with keen interest their 
future, since the State Board is now alone respon- 
sible for them; but one thing is certain, the policy 
of using South Carolinians to teach in them goes 
a long way toward insuring loyal administration. 


TENNESSEE 


Watauga Academy 


Watauga Academy, at Butler, Tennessee, is the 
only Baptist mountain school in the extreme East- 
ern section of that state. This section of the state 
is very backward and undeveloped, and the work of 
the school is difficult and slow. The field from 
which Watauga draws its patronage is large, and 
the need is proportionately great. There is much 
ignorance, and there are many defective children. 
It is fair therefore that this school should have an 
equipment above the average, and a faculty second 
to none in wisdom, grace and humor, taking the 
teacher’s routine preparation for granted. The 


110 OAK AND LAUREL 


former of these qualifications Watauga certainly 
has not; but in her teachers she is exceedingly for- 
tunate, especially in the lady principal, Miss Bertha 
Carroll, who has occupied this position since 1919, 
and is still enthusiastic over her chosen work. Miss 
Carroll was formerly W.M.U. secretary for North 
Carolina, and is thoroughly loyal to their work, but 
she is pre-eminently a teacher, and has cast her lot 
in with the mountain mission schools. 

Watauga Academy has many lovable characteris- 
tics; it has a homelike air, a cozy yard—one could 
not say campus—and a very beautiful location with 
regard to mountain and stream. A swift and lovely 
creek flows audibly at the foot of the height just 
back of the school, and is crossed near by, over a 
rustic bridge. The boys and girls can have their 
regular swimming days in warm weather, fortu- 
nately, for there is no running water in the build- 
ings, the dormitories are old and nondescript, poor- 
ly and crudely heated; though there are electric 
lights, since the school is in the town of Butler and 
shares its advantages, such as they are. 

College graduates who deliberately and gladly 
give themselves to the work of teaching mountain 
boys and girls, with the small salaries of these 
teachers, and the imperfect equipment of schools 
like Watauga, are deserving our highest praise and 
our loyal support. These teachers, like many oth- 
ers, could command higher salaries in some better 
furnished schools, but they are doing good here as 
they could not perhaps elsewhere, and they are 
happy in the doing. Watauga has six in her fac- 
ulty; in 1922-23, there were eighty-five pupils en- 
rolled, mostly from the county, though a goodly 
number belong in Butler; most of the boarders go 


OAK AND LAUREL 111 


home every week-end, and their board is figured on 
that basis. 

The present administration (1923) would prefer 
to have all students remain at the school continu- 
ously, but it is not practical at present. Most of our 
mountain schools keep a guest room, but at Watau- 
ga and one or two others, dormitory space is at such 
a premium that a chance guest is fortunate to ar- 
rive on a Friday, when most of the rooms will be 
vacant overnight. There is no adequate reception 
room, or assembly hall at Watauga, for the only 
stairway in the girls’ home is built in what would 
be the reception hall, and by means of it all coal and 
water must be carried upstairs and all ashes and 
refuse must be carried down; and there is no sew- 
erage any more than there is a central heating 
plant; so that this room, pleasant enough otherwise, 
is rendered impracticable as a place to receive vis- 
itors. Watauga should be given new dormitories 
at an early day. 

There is a state school a few miles farther up the 
line, which of course has all necessary modern 
equipment, but it will never turn out Baptist boys 
and girls “furnished unto all good works.” 

We need our mission schools, if for no stronger 
reason, for the sake of the personal influence to be 
exerted by the high-minded Christian men and 
women who teach in them. 

There is an unusual library in the administration 
building at Watauga; here forethought and good 
sense have made wise provision. The books are not 
the haphazard collection with which most of our 
mountain schools have had to be satisfied. These 
five hundred books have been carefully chosen, and 
the twenty periodicals in neat attractive hand-made 
covers are just the ones best suited to the needs of 


112 OAK AND LAUREL 


these growing, grasping young intellects. Watau- 
ga may indeed be proud of her library, and she 
continues to ask her friends to give—not the books 
themselves, but the price of them, in order that this 
high standard may be maintained. 

There is a business-like air about Watauga’s 
classrooms; no slovenliness is observable, the black- 
board work is all neat and attractive and the desks 
are orderly. 

Upstairs is the chapel. It has been said that 
mountain boys and girls, especially in the more 
backward districts do not respect equipment, and 
abuse the school furnishings. Watauga’s chapel is 
a silent protest against this indictment. Beautiful 
seats two years old, with a fine shining finish upon 
them, fill this auditorium, and so perfect is their 
condition that one could readily believe they had 
just been installed. Not a scratch is visible, not an 
abrasion; the boys and girls are highly proud of 
their beautiful auditorium and very jealous of its 
use even by the townspeople. The whole school 
spirit of Watauga is but a reflection of the atmos- 
phere surrounding its faculty, every member of 
which habitually says, not this school, but our 
school. 

Pupils are received here as low as the sixth 
grade; they graduate from the eleventh. Four 
years study in music constitutes the course. Chorus 
singing is emphasized. There is one literary so- 
ciety, where boys and girls may pit their talents 
one against the other. There are classes in Bible 
for each grade, and in Missioris and Sunday School 
Pedagogy, to fit the young Christian for work. 

Board here ranges from $7.00 a month for those 
who go home for the week-end, to $10.00. Tuition 
from $3.00 to $4.00 a month. Each term a charge is 


OAK AND LAUREL iS 


made of $2.50 for a room in either dormitory. The 
library requires a term-fee of twenty-five cents a 
pupil, for its upkeep. Girls in the dormitory must 
give a few hours of service each month in the din- 
ing-room. “This is good for them, and helps to re- 
duce expenses,” says the catalogue. 

Watauga Academy would put up a better front, 
literally, if it had an attractive, inviting entrance. 
An old worm-eaten board fence, with a creaky gate 
at one side of the lane which leads to the main road, 
is not a fitting approach to so pretty a scene as Wa- 
tauga’s main building in its bower of trees presents. 

Well-built pillars and a low wall of flat sandstone 
rocks, would give quite an artistrocratic air to the 
school property, and these stones lie by hundreds in 
the creek-bed, and along its channel, just behind 
Watauga’s premises. The boys could do this; and 
another season may see it completed. 

Watauga deserves the best. 


Harrison-Chilhowee Institute 


From Knoxville to Sevierville, thirty miles, 
sounds like a simple hour’s journey to the unini- 
tiated, but the boys and girls who traveled to 
Smoky Mountain Institute or to Harrison-Chil- 
howee in the years previous to September 1922 
found it a tedious matter; they must leave Knox- 
ville about six in the morning—dark, in the winter 
—and rattle and bump along at the rate of seven or 
eight miles an hour, going to either school, and 
even less returning. The train is made up of sev- 
eral freight cars and one accommodation (?) coach, 
and its main business is evidently freight, not pas- 
senger traffic. However, this is happily changed, 
and a neat, clean, little electric car, smelling of var- 


114 OAK AND LAUREL 


nish, rides the same rails, and makes the journey 
in a creditably short time; three trips a day, which 
would be much shorter, if it were not necessary to 
wait for the aforesaid little freight train to get out 
of the way at either end of the line. 

A little over half-way to Sevierville, the visitor 
or student alights at either Pitner or Seymour. 
Pitner is nearer Harrison-Chilhowee Institute, but 
at Seymour one can hire a Ford to carry him the 
short miles over a good road to the school. There 
is a post office at Seymour, and several houses. 
Most of the stations along this line are of this type. 

One approaches Chilhowee from the rear, and is 
not at first pleasantly impressed. No reason is ap- 
parent for the buildings facing the other way; but 
once arrived at the front, one sees that there are 
other roads winding off among the hills, and though 
this one leading to the railroad station seems to be 
the main approach, evidently it is a comparatively 
recent development. 

We find the usuai arrangement, an administration 
building between two dormitories, but there is no 
crowding here. They are far enough apart to in- 
sure bodily exercise in getting from one to the other 
especially in winter, when the snow has fallen, 
and the wind sweeps over this unprotected height. 
Thirteen acres belong to the school. A garden oc- 
cupies some space, but most of it is just campus. 

This school is probably the oldest mountain 
school of the Baptists in Tennessee, though the 
exact date of its founding is not available. The 
buildings are all brick or brick veneer, and present 
a very substantial appearance, although the veneer 
has not been completed on the Mary Ellis Home for 
girls. This commodious and well-arranged building 
was the gift of Mr. Harrison Ellis who gave the site 


OAK AND LAUREL Lf> 


and $1,000, and named it in memory of his wife. 
Thus his name becomes a part of the school tradi- 
tion and title. 

Here are the principal’s office, a large reception 
hall, and rooms for various teachers as well as the 
kitchen and dining-room, all on the first floor. The 
second and third stories are given over to the girls. 
Most of the rooms are bright and well-kept, with 
window boxes or blooming plants, and a general air 
of home. 

In the basement of this building is the laundry, 
where there is an equipment of tubs, etc., but there 
is no running water and it must be carried in; a 
sink conveys it off. The girls have a regular sched- 
ule for their washings; the teachers also; as only 
one or two can wash their clothes at the same time. 
There are no baths in this building, of course, 
though there is a system of sanitation; and the 
building is heated by steam and lighted by a Delco 
plant which also serves the other two buildings, and 
the community church which stands across the 
campus. 

Eleven girls are earning their way by helping 
with the housework; this-in 1922-23. One capable 
maiden makes all the bread and cakes, one prepares 
the dinners, another builds fires and makes the 
gravies. There are seventy-five boarding pupils and 
the number will increase to one hundred by spring. 
Two hundred and fifty is the enrollment and there 
are nine teachers. 

The principal, Mr. J. E. Barton, is the mainspring 
of Chilhowee, having occupied the chair for ten 
years. In 1922-23 he was granted a leave of ab- 
sence, and the school missed him much as a watch 
misses its mainspring. Mr. Drinnen, the dean, who 


116 OAK AND LAUREL 


teaches English and Bible, did his utmost to fill the 
Sap. 
Mr. Andrew Davis, Mr. Barton’s senior in point 
of service by three years, is teacher of intermediate 
grades; for Harrison-Chilhowee is a graded school, 
from the primary up. Of course it is the only school 
for miles around and as a high school must be its 
own feeder. The little Chilhowee community has 
gathered about.the school, and looks up to it in 
very reality. 

Mr. Barton is evidently the sort of man for such 
a place as this. They tell you proudly and admir- 
ingly that “Mr. Barton can do anything.” He is an 
electrician, plumber, machinist, builder. He is a 
man of authority, respected and loved by both fac- 
ulty and pupils. 

The boys’ dormitory has a general careless ap- 
pearance which indicates the absence of feminine 
influence. It is a roomy building heated with hot 
air. 

The needs of this school are various. The stu- 
dents would tell you first that they need a gym- 
nasium; the matron would plead for a kitchen 
range, some poultry to keep in the generous spaces 
behind the house, and a cow or two; but to the gen- 
eral, interested public it would seem that running 
water is a necessity second to none. 

Carson-Newman College offers an annual schol- 
arship to the honor graduate, and the institute it- 
self gives one under-graduate scholarship. 

It is interesting to notice that an average of 
eighty per cent in at least four full subjects is re- 
quired of an aspirant to participation in interschol- 
astic athletic contests. The same requirement is 
made of boys and girls who wish to have the privi- 


OAK AND LAUREL hy 


lege of each other’s company socially. This is cer- 
tainly a wise provision. 

There are regular high school courses in Mathe- 
matics, English, Latin, French, History and Science. 
Religious instruction includes beside the Bible, the 
Sunday School and B.Y.P.U. Manuals, books on 
Home and Foreign Missions, as well as some de- 
nominational texts, but there is no mention of a 
study of the W.M.U. Manual on the part of the 
girls. One is moved to question why. 

Piano, Art and Expression are also listed among 
the courses; the cost of these extras ranges from 
$2.00 to $3.00 per month. Board is $2.50 per week 
to pupils who remain for the week-end, $2.00 to 
such as do not. Tuition runs from $1.20 per month 
in the primary grades, to $3.20 in the high school. 

The interest of the country round about centers 
in this school. The Board of Trustees is composed 
of nine men from Chilhowee Association, and nine 
from Sevier Association, elected in groups of three 
each, annually, for a term of three years, with Dr. 
A. E. Brown, ex officio. 

It is a great old school, with a great opportunity. 
Its atmosphere breathes peace; the Chilhowee and 
Smoky Mountains loom in its encircling back- 
ground; the rare air of the highlands maintains 
health among its patrons; there has never been any 
serious illness in the school; so there has been no 
need of an infirmary. 

At Commencement time, people come almost by 
thousands, to witness the exercises, and the cam- 
pus becomes a lively and populous place, with 
groups of animated people and big and little chil- 
dren; cars and carriages packed in every available 
space. 


118 OAK AND LAUREL 


At its present rate of growth, Harrison-Chillowee 
will soon need a more adequate auditorium, if it 
does not already. 


Stocton Valley Academy 


At Helena, Tennessee, Fentress County, is located 
Stocton Valley Academy, its nearest railroad point 
being Stocton, fifteen miles away. This school was 
opened in 1909. In the years since, it has proved 
itself a great influence radiating mental, moral and 
spiritual life over the surrounding community. 
Strong Christian men and women are employed as 
teachers, and the courses of study are adequate to 
the needs. Its equipment consists of an adminis- 
tration building containing five classrooms and au- 
ditorium; a very good library, a girls’ dormitory 
with twelve bedrooms and the culinary department, 
a cottage holding twelve boys. 

The greatest of Stocton Valley’s many needs are 
water and lights; the water works plant is begun, 
and when it is finished there will remain a debt of 
only $100. The providing of a light plant will not 
be commenced until this debt is paid. The dormi- 
tory needs table and bed linens, dishes, curtains and 
chairs. ' 

In 1922-23 the enrollment was 148, with five 
teachers. Only twenty-eight of this number were 
boarding pupils, the others walking to school daily 
from their homes in the hills. 

This big family lives on the co-operative plan; 
every one has a share in the work, and board has 
not been more than $9.00 per month. They have 
their garden, and can enough peaches, apples, ber- 
ries, beets, tomatoes and pickles to last a year. 


OAK AND LAUREL 119 


This is one of the real mountain schools, away 
from cities, off the beaten track; situated among 
the very people it is intended to reach; here teach- 
ers labor with meager equipment and small salaries, 
doing untold good that will increase the sum of ef- 
ficiency and righteousness in the world. The wom- 
en of Tennessee no doubt remember Stocton Valley 
in their praying and if they cannot undertake the 
hard journey into the mountains to visit it, their 
boxes of household goods and books and linens can. 


Cosby Academy 


From Newport, Tennessee, a journey of ten miles 
brings one to a beautiful spot in the mountains; 
lonely, it is true, but close to Nature’s heart, where 
the Baptists of the East Tennessee Association to- 
gether with the Home Mission Board, in 1913 found- 
ed Cosby Academy, for the immediate benefit of 
the youth of that region. Perhaps a mistake was 
made in not locating the school farther up the Cos- 
by Valley where the people were not so scattered; 
no doubt the attendance would have been larger had 
such been the case; but in ten years’ time the en- 
rollment was about one hundred, and Cosby Acad- 
emy Hill had become a busy place. Seldom will any 
one find a lovelier spot in all these Tennessee moun- 
tains, as the eyes follow down the valley and on to 
the surrounding peaks beyond. 

A few large landowners are in possession of the 
farms in this region and one of the best things that 
could be done locally for the school, would be for 
these landowners to sell off small parcels of land 
to families who wish to bring their children to the 
school and live near it themselves. This would 
greatly increase the attendance. 


120 OAK AND LAUREL 


Several facts militate at present, against a larger 
enrollment; first, the sparse settlement of the neigh- 
borhood; second, the failure of East Tennessee Bap- 
tists to properly appreciate the school, and fully 
support it; and third, the recent establishment of 
a splendidly equipped, standard high school at New- 
port. 

Cosby should be standardized. The addition of 
one more high school teacher, and the meeting of a 
few minor requirements would do this. 

The campus comprises ten acres, and the purest 
of mountain spring water is furnished in abundance, 
by no other force than natural gravity. But in the 
three good buildings are found some conditions 
which a little foresight or (save the mark!) a wom- 
an on the committee, could have obviated. For in- 
stance, there is not a single wardrobe in either dor- 
mitory; the kitchen is smaller than even the aver- 
age; the pantry is removed from the kitchen, and 
no provision was made for installing lights. How- 
ever, these conditions and others just as difficult are 
found in some other schools beside Cosby; and be- 
neath all sorts of discouragements, the great work 
goes on. 

Many people are praying and sacrificing for Cos- 
by, particularly the local members of the board, and 
those of the faculty who have for years identified 
themselves with the school. 

Prof. R. L. Marshall, a man of enthusiastic nature 
and business-like efficiency, a splendid teacher de- 
voted to the work of mountain schools, has been at 
the head of Cosby Academy since 1919. Miss Ade- 
lia Lowrie, a training school graduate, occupies the 
position of matron, at the same time teaching His- 
tory, French and Bible. Miss Lowrie prepared her- 
self for foreign mission work; finding herself, how- 


OAK AND LAUREL 12) 


ever, led by the Master, as many another has been, 
into equally valuable service in the mountains of 
the home land. She has developed the course in 
Bible Study wonderfully, and each Commencement 
season she is rewarded by the long lines of boys and 
girls that await their seals and diplomas. In 1922, 
102 awards were made at Cosby Academy. Miss 
Lowrie has also done much toward developing the 
religious life of the school by the organization cf 
the various phases of church activity. She has been 
in mountain school work since 1912. 

Mrs. Sexton, the housekeeper, has been presiding 
over the cuisine since 1919, and implants in the 
hearts of these boys and girls a love for orderli- 
ness, cleanliness and punctuality in the home, which 
will characterize their living when school days have 
long faded into the past. 

Cosby has no classes below the fifth grade, and 
continues through four years of high school work. 
Scholarships are offered annually for one year, by 
Carson-Newman and Tennessee colleges. Board is 
furnished here more cheaply than at most other 
mountain schools; tuition about the average cost; 
several students earn their way, and others would 
gladly do so if work were available. 

Friends of the school are increasing in number; 
as its good work is becoming known. Sunday- 
school classes in the cities have furnished the guest 
room and installed the equipment for hot and cold 
water for the girls; doubtless some interested 
group in Tennessee will do the same for the boys. 
A young man of Kingston, who recently became an 
enthusiastic tither, is using his tithe to pay for the 
chemical laboratory equipment; this is a splendid 
gift, and might well be emulated by others, as Cos- 
by needs similar equipment for biological and bot- 


122 OAK AND LAUREL 


anical work, and for manual training, which all our 
mountain schools should have. 

Seats are needed for the auditorium, and some ar- 
ticles of furniture for both dormitories. 

This region is deficient in a supply of minister- 
ial material. Prof. Marshall and his teachers are 
praying for God’s spirit to descend upon the hearts 
of the boys of East Tennessee and lead them to give 
their life’s service to the lost world. The spiritual 
atmosphere of the school is very marked. Prayer 
services are held nightly in the dormitories; the 
B.Y.P.U. and Y.W.A. fostered by the praying teach- 
ers, will no doubt bring forth fruit to God’s glory. 

More than one of these teachers have refused bet- 
ter salaries offered by secular schools, for their love 
of this their chosen work, and their truly sacrificial! 
labors should be appreciated by all the Baptists of 
Tennessee and the South. 


Doyle Institute 


The only mountain mission school Southern Bap- 
tists have in middle Tennessee, has the dignity 
of age. It was founded in 1884, by the people of 
the community, largely Baptist, and is still the 
only school of any kind in the town of Doyle. 

Doyle is iike many other little villages in middle 
Tennessee; located on a branch road running north- 
east from Tullahoma, and operating two trains 
each way every day, it is in touch with the out- 
side world at all times. 

Doyle Institute was eighteen years old before 
the Home Mission Board adopted her, in 1902. 
In that year also, Doyle came into possession of 
what is undoubtedly her greatest asset to-day— 
Miss Minnie Moyers, who for twenty years has 


OAK AND LAUREL 123 


taught mountain buys and girls in this one place. 
Occasionaliy some one in the outside world would 
discover “Miss Minnie”’—but no offer has ever been 
high enough to tempt this devoted woman away 
from the school she loves. In one room she con- 
trols, teaches, and influences children of the second, 
third and fourth grades. There is perfect order— 
or as nearly perfect as can be under such con: 
ditions. There is neatness and system—as mucb 
as one can have without either a desk or a table for 
the teacher, or any receptable for chalk and erasers 
beneath the blackboards. The boards themselves 
are very good. 

The building is wonderful for its age; but at 
a distance it looks very much better than on closer 
acquaintance. It presides over a very beautiful, 
level campus; behind it the spurs of the Cumber- 
lands are hazily ciose; the grass and ball-courts 
are protected from rambling stock by a substan- 
tial board fence, which is crossed by a stile of 
cement. 

One large dormitory, in whose design beauty 
tcok no part. looms in the immediate foreground; 
the family of the matron occupies the lower floor, 
where there is a dining-room sufficiently large te 
accommodate all the boarding pupils the house 
would hold; but the fact is that the few girls who do 
not stay in the viilage, room here and do their 
own housekeeping, having their kitchens on the 
third floor. 

The same conditions prevail in the cottage termed 
the boys’ home. A male teacher and his family 
live here, and a couple of boys and their sisters 
keep house for themselves. These young people 
cannot afford to pay board. 


124 OAK AND LAUREL 


This school has one arrangement peculiar to it- 
self; its teachers, the principal excepted, are paid 
by the county, up to January of each school year; 
so much of the year it is a county school. From 
January until the close of school, the teachers, 
with the same exception, are dependent upon the 
tuition fees paid by the children in the grades 
they teach. Some of these children have no funds, 
and some—a few—are paid for by scholarships 
furnished by friends of the school—and of the 
teachers. 

The music teacher works under the same ar- 
rangement. There is but one piano in the school, 
that being one which was given away by a local 
firm and which the school’s friends determined to 
obtain. It is kept necessarily in the music room, 
and must be moved up and downstairs when some 
unusual event occurs in the auditorium. Having 
no piano for chapel exercises forms quite a handi- 
cap thereto, and prevents the singing from being 
what it otherwise might, though the children sing 
weil and enjoy doing it, like all mountain boys and 
girls. They love to play, too, and athletics are 
a large part of their school life at Doyle Institute. 
The entire enrollment for the year 1922-23 was 
more than 400, but the spring term showed an 
attendance of about half as many. One ministerial 
student is enroiled. The Y.W.A. exists but is not 
active. 

An electric light system was installed in 1923 
for both town and school, and adds greatly to the 
efficiency of the work. There is no sewerage system 
nor heating plant in any of the buildings; but 
the work goes steadily on. This is a real moun- 
tain school, full of mountain boys and girls, and 


OAK AND LAUREL r2) 


the six teachers love their work, else they would 
not be there. 

The local trustees are deeply interested in the 
institution, and realize that it is very necessary 
to the welfare of the. community and the moun- 
tain region around about. It is the only school 
in the community. 

If. the ancient building could be rejuvenated, 
the floors repaired and the walls freshened, with 
_a little more equipment, Doyle would be good for 
another fifty years, but the Campaign had not met 
expectations up to 1923, and funds were not to be 
had. 


Smoky Mountain Academy 


Miss Mary Murfree must have been writing about 
this very neighborhood when she penned her tender, 
actual tales of the Tennessee mountains. Folk 
so hospitable, so true, so loyal, keen-witted and 
humorous are seldom found anywhere as in these 
ridges of the Cumberlands, whose misty summits 
lie in the sunlight unafraid, or bathe in God’s tem- 
pestuous and sudden storms. 

Years ago these people decided for themselves 
that they wanted a school for their children; they 
chose the dearest spot they knew—and incidentally 
the most beautiful in the neighborhood, which 
was the site of their burying-ground; than which 
no place in the world is more sacred and precious 
to mountain folk. Here in the ice and mud and snow 
of an inauspicious season, the men prepared the 
lumber, while the women, dauntless and devoted, 
cooked their meals free of charge, in order that 
the schoolhouse might be erected. They have 
stood by this school with determination. Only 
three miles away another denomination founded 


126 OAK AND LAUREL 


a school where everything was free—books, tyi- 
tion, etc., but these independent souls refused to 
be pauperized, and continued to pay as they were 
able, for what they received. 

In 1916 the Home Mission Board adopted the 
school, and it has been the dearest possession of 
these people since. 

By and by, it became evident that the site was 
unhealthy, the water supply not of the right na- 
ture; and the removal of the bodies in the ceme- 
tery to some other equally beautiful place was sug- 
gested, but the minds of the mountain people 
revolted at the idea of disturbing their dear dead, 
and the suggestion was abandoned, not however 
without the creation of some bitterness which still 
remains. It may be found necessary to trans- 
fer the school sometime in the future. 

Sacrifices untold have been theirs, in order that 
the school might live. The names of various prin- 
cipals and teachers might be cited, who toiled 
for small pay, for the love of the work. No doubt 
their names are written in Heaven. 

Smoky Mountain Academy was the child of the 
Sevier Association, and was placed by its people 
about fifteen miles from Sevierville, on an eleva- © 
tion commanding a wonderful view; within a day’s 
journey are Mt. Guyot and Mt. Le Conte; these 
are the highest peaks east of the Rockies, ex- 
cept Mt. Mitchell. These mountains form a back- 
ground for a group of communities, the homes 
of hundreds of young people, peculiarily suscep- 
tible to high ideals. These young people can rev- 
olutionize the life of this great highland section, 
when they have the proper training. The noble 
teachers toil incessantly with the meager equip- 


OAK AND LAUREL 127 


ment they have, but they could work wonders 
with the proper provision for their needs. ° 

The school property includes fifteen acres, shaded 
by forest trees and naturally drained. The build- 
ings are four, including the church. The main 
building is a two-story frame; its auditorium is 
splendidly arranged, and at present. about half 
seated with open chairs. Hot-air heating is used. 
_ The other buildings are a teacher’s cottage, and 
a somewhat dilapidated, disreputable looking frame 
building which answers the purpose of a _ boys’ 
dormitory. This latter is not school property. 
The school has no adequate provision for properly 
caring for boarding students. The people of the 
community have been kind in the matter of hous- 
ing them. 

In 1922-23 the enrollment was 135, in classes 
all the way from first grade through high school. 
Four teachers do all this work. Miss Mayme 
Grimes, the principal, attempts to combine the 
duties of that office with those of a full-time teacher, 
while at the same time doing the buying for the 
commissary, keeping all the accounts, attending 
to correspondence—and so forth. Her teaching 
occupies her from eight until four-thirty. In her 
spare (?) time she has also superintended the cook- 
ing for about eight months. Miss Grimes relates 
this joyfully; it is done in an effort to pay off some 
debts that have accumulated from year to year. 
This is the spirit of the mountain teacher; this 
is “her” school. 

The 1922-23 graduating class numbered three. 
Of these one was an ordained minister, another 
a volunteer. Every effort is made to send these 
young people forth from year to year filled with 
practical ideals for their home life; they are shown 


128 OAK AND LAUREL 


how to be useful in the churches, and given sound 
instruction in the Bible, that the original clear 
faith of the mountaineer may be not only unshaken, 
but confirmed and enlightened. 

A fine spirit of harmonious loyalty to the school 
pervades the whole. Of their own accord, in 1922- 
23 the student body undertook to raise the money 
to put in an electric lighting system, and after 
giving sacrificially themselves, they called on for- 
mer students and friends. They also help to fur- 
nish the library; there are some 400 books but 
not very well selected; the teachers themselves 
furnish the religious journals and a daily; a Knox- 
ville B.Y.P.U. sends the Literary Digest. 

Work in the literary societies is of the same 
nature as in our other schools; it is required for 
graduation. The course of study is adapted to 
two distinct classes of students, those who go 
back home, and those who go on to higher institu- 
tions of learning. 

In 1922 Smoky Mountain Academy furnished 
Sevier County more than twenty-five teachers. 
More of its students passed the teacher’s exami- 
nation than of all other schools in the county. In 
the eight years of the school’s existence it has 
sent out some thirty volunteers for especial Chris- 
tain service. There were two young ministers 
there in 1923. 

Roughly estimated, Smoky Mountain needs dor- 
mitories, equipment of all kinds, and more teachers; 
better ones, more self-denying and loyal are not 
to be had. 


“Thy righteousness is like the great mountains” 
(Psalm 36: 6). 


CHAPTER VI 
VIRGINIA 


Lee Baptist Institute 


Virginia has but one mountain mission school 
at present under the control of the Home Mission 
Board. Where the state tapers to a wedge point- 
ing southeastward, in the midst of the Cumber- 
lands, with the Kentucky line but seven miles away, 
and North Carolina and Tennessee very intimate 
neighbors, lies the town of Pennington Gap. Gaps 
are numerous in this section of the mountains, and 
the railroads take advantage of them; so here, a 
division of the L. & N. Railroad passes through 
on its way to Kentucky, and makes it easy for boys 
and girls to come to Lee Baptist Institute. 

Twenty-five miles away is the Natural Tunnel; 
within a few hundred yards of the school is Gilley 
Cave, which rivals the Cavern of Luray in grandeur; 
the well-known Sand Cave is but seventeen miles 
away; and this is the very threshold of the Pocket 
country, so rich in mines and full of varied natural 
beauty. The students frequently make expedi- 
tions to see the wonders of the surrounding moun- 
tains. . 

From any point in Pennington Gap can be seen 
the imposing structures of the school, towering 


(129) 


130 OAK AND LAUREL 


on a sharp rise opposite the ridge which bears the 
town, in the midst of great gray boulders which 
make ordinary streets and sidewalks impracticable. 

Lee is splendidly drained; has good mountain 
water and most invigorating air. Her buildings 
are very much above the average, and all beauti- 
fully kept. The girls’ dormitory which was burned 
in 1914, was replaced at a cost of some $8,000, and 
is thoroughly modern, and practically fireproof; 
it will house about fifty girls. Societies and 
Churches have furnished its rooms, and other 
friends of the school did the same for the parlor 
and hall. The boys’ home is truly a home. Prof. 
and Mrs. Skaggs have apartments on the first floor, 
and the daintiness of their private establishment 
pervades the entire building. The reception hall. 
or assembly room, is made a parlor, where curtains, 
rugs, flowers, pictures and books combine to make 
the boys feel that their personal comfort and en- 
joyment is a prime consideration. No broken win- 
dows here, no desolate bareness, no defaced walls, 
but warmth and light and a real home atmosphere. 
The boys are very proud of this attractive build- 
ing, and take an honest pride in their care of it. 
Bathtubs are found here, and there is a regular 
schedule for baths as for lessons and play hours. 
This dormitory was built by the Home Board, 
which has had full control of the school since 1910. 

Prof. Skaggs, whose nine years’ experience in 
other schools before coming to Lee makes him a 
man of experience in his chosen field, is a power 
on the campus. The boys and girls respect his 
ability to do things; and his readiness to install 
plumbing, build a porch or erect a basketball goal 
is mentioned by them with just pride, while at 
the same time they realize his worth as a teacher: 


OAK AND LAUREL 131 


and when he says “Smoking in any form is for- 
bidden, under penalty of suspension,” they do not 
question his wisdom or his intention of carrying 
out the sentence. 

The splendid administration building presides over 
the campus, as is fitting. It is admirably planned. 
The first floor contains four classrooms, the library 
of over 500 volumes, and the principal’s office. In 
the basement are laboratories, and the department 
of Domestic Science; on the second floor the music 
studio, practice rooms, classrooms and a fine audi- 
torium, which should have new chairs, though the 
present furnishing is better than that of the aver- 
age mountain school auditorium. 

The autumn of 1922 saw an enrollment of 170; 
of these forty were boarders. The food was excel- 
lent, varied, attractive. One young man was help- 
ing in the kitchen, to earn his way. 

This school is a notable example of what the 
Home Mission Board can do when it has the entire 
responsibility. Lee is attractive, well equipped, 
well manned; the premises are neat, the buildings 
in good repair, the sanitary arrangements in ex- 
cellent condition, the table service admirable. This 
school was begun in 1903 to foster local education 
in Lee County—how many of our mountain schools 
began just so, born of a determination in the hearts 
of a few men and women, to give their children 
educational advantages! It was supported locally, 
but under the supervision of the Educational Com- 
mission of Virginia, for five years. Then the Home 
Mission Board was asked by the Commission to 
take the school over; it was numbered among the 
mountain schools of the S.B.C., in 1908 and came 
under the full control of the Home Board. It is an 
institution to be proud of. 


132 OAK AND LAUREL 


Lee is a strong moral and Christian influence 
in the town; its teachers and students promote 
and enliven the life of the four churches, and leaven 
the social activities of Pennington Gap as well. 
All the usual spiritual exercises of a Christan school 
are practised, including the evening devotions be- 
fore bedtime in the dormitory parlors. 

Since 1910 this school has graduated from its high 
school department seventy-five young men and 
women; scores of these are filling positions of honor 
and profit; many are still at school elsewhere, and 
many hundreds who attended only for a short while, 
are living transformed lives as a result. 

There are several cottages within the eight or 
nine acres of the school’s property, and these are 
rented to families wishing to live near the school 
to educate their children, or to young married 
students who wish to keep house while attending 
school. ; 

When the matter of needs was brought to the 
attention of the housekeeper, she very modestly 
said she would greatly appreciate materials for a 
poultry yard enclosure. Surely some good friend 
of Lee Baptist Institute has already found pleas- 
ure in granting so modest a wish. 


Blue Ridge School 


The churches of the Blue Ridge Association in 
1916 bought a farm of ninety-one acres at Buffalo 
Ridge, with an old farmhouse which has since been 
remodeled for school purposes, and on this tract of 
land founded a school whose avowed purpose was 
to serve the boys and girls of that region. The 
property was deeded to the State Mission Board 
which became responsible for furnishings and sal- 


OAK AND LAUREL 133 


aries. School was begun in the old farm dwelling, 
which has since been twice enlarged; soon the 
recitation building was erected; one dormitory was 
recently completed, and a larger one is soon to be 
begun. The 1922-23 enrollment was about 150, and 
the faculty numbered nine. 

The school receives pupils from the first grade 
up through the eleventh. The high school meets 
all the conditions required by the State Board regu- 
lations. 

A brief course in Agriculture attempts to restore 
the love for rural life, so sadly on the wane; and 
by teaching modern farming methods, to bring 
up the standards of such living so that the trend 
of favor will be largely toward the farm instead 
of away from it. Likewise the Domestic Science 
taught here is essentially practical, seeking to im- 
plant in the girls a high ideal of home life, and the 
knowledge whch will make the attainment of such 
an ideal possible. These girls will make better 
wives and mothers when they have been taught at 
the Blue Ridge School, how to cook and sew and 
manage a house. 

Board is provided for both teachers and pupils 
at $13.00 per month which includes heat and elec- 
tric light. The farm produces vegetables, meat, 
milk and eggs; also employment for boys who wish 
to earn their way. It would be a fine thing if every 
mountain school possessed such a farm. 

Each year more than a score of these boys and 
girls are converted, and many offer themselves for 
definite Christian work. Classes for Teacher Train- 
ing, and all the young people’s organizations of the 
church are maintained. 

The definite, expressed aim of this school is to 
cultivate a taste for rural life, by making it so at- 


134 OAK AND LAUREL 


tractive that these young people will never be 
among the crowds that throng the city pavements, 
only to be disillusioned, and to return sadly in aiter 
years to the farms that they had left. 

One of the rules of Blue Ridge School forbids 
smoking. It would be a very constructive measure, 
if all these mountain schools would adopt such a 
regulation. 

The school has no endowment, but a small schol- 
arship fund is provided to help girls who have no 
means, and are in earnest about getting an edu- 
cation. Churches and individuals are urged to pro- 
vide scholarships; some are already doing this; the 
Woman’s Missionary Union organizations have 
helped in many material ways, and will continue to 
do so. Our people are being roused to the realiza- 
tion that these mountain boys and girls, unspoiled 
by the deterioration of customs and manners in 
the last few years, have both the brain and brawn 
which are necessary to re-vitalize the world we live 
in; and that education—Christian education is the 
necessary measure for their development. Virginia 
needs the young people of the Blue Ridge, the 
South needs them; and such schools as this at Buf- 
falo Ridge are doing just the work that will bring 
them into the struggle of good against evil. 


Buchanan School 


The women of Virginia are directly responsible 
for the organization of this school at Council, in 
Buchanan County; in 1898 the Virginia W. M. U. 
was organized, and it was not long until the women 
became interested in this county, which, with a 
population of 14,000, including not one negro o1 


OAK AND LAUREL 135 


person of foreign birth, there was no Baptist 
Church. At their request the State Mission Board 
put a missionary on that field, with the understand- 
ing that the women were to furnish the funds for 
his support. This worker was known as the Vir- 
ginia W. M. U. missionary. Soon these women had 
a parsonage built for him, near one of the churches 
which he had organized. 

The need for a school soon became apparent, and 
again the State Board made the initial movement, 
upon the women’s promise to raise $2,000 toward 
a building, and a stated amount annually toward its 
maintenance. At this time Mrs. W. C. James was 
president of the Virginia W. M. U., and Mrs. Julian 
P. Thomas, corresponding secretary. A gift of 
land decided the location of the school, a few more 
acres were purchased, and after the first parson- 
age was sold at a profit, a new one was built near 
the Corinth Church, where the school was also lo- 
cated, giving them a group of three good buildings. 
Year after year the W. M. U. contributed more 
money than it promised, and the dormitory was 
soon built. 

A student scholarship fund was begun in 1913, 
and grew rapidly, along with the gifts for current 
support, until in one year 1919, the two funds 
amounted to more than $8,000. Though some 
money is still designated to Buchanan Mountain 
School, most of the gifts of the women are now 
combined in campaign receipts. In addition to this 
support, by societies and associationa] unions, 
many contributions have been made to both fur- 
nishing and support. 

During all this time the women were giving gen- 
erously to State Missions also. The year they gave 
more than $8,000 to Buchanan, they also gave 


136 OAK AND LAUREL 


$25,000 to State Missions; and of course the State 
Board was also contributing to the school. This is 
a fine sample of co-operation. 

This school is the property of the General Asso- 
ciation, or State Convention, of Virginia, to which 
the Virginia W. M. U. is auxiliary. It has a faculty 
of nine teachers, including one who superintends 
operations in the farm of two hundred acres, now 
belonging to the school. The course of study fol- 
lows the curriculum of all accredited schools, and 
includes some subjects not taught in a state school. 
There are all the usual adjuncts, literary and ath- 
letic: 

The buildings include one for administration and 
four used for dormitory purposes, the former new 
and perfectly modern. This is constructed of na- 
tive sandstone, and has a very beautiful auditorium. 
These are all equipped with water, lights, sewerage, 
and the two large dormitories with hot air fur- 
naces. 

The site is well drained, being an eminence over- 
looking the lovely valley through which flows the 
Russell Fork of the Big Sandy River. The view 
is most picturesque. Water is brought through 
galvanized pipes from three springs about a mile 
away, near the top of the mountain. The health 
of the student body is very nearly perfect. 

There is a four-year course in Domestic Science 
and Art, in the last year of which the class does ac- 
tual housekeeping in the “Model Cottage.” In each 
of these departments a fee of thirty cents per month 
is paid in advance. 

he enrollment for 1922-23 is 250, largely from 
Buchanan County, and those adjoining, which is 
satisfactory to the management, as the school is 


OAK AND LAUREL 137 


intended for young people from this particular 
section of Southwestern Virginia. 

In connection with the Corinth Church, the school 
fosters all the organizations of the W.M.U. as well 
as three B. Y. P. Unions. It is unusual for a stu- 
dent who comes to Buchanan unsaved to go away 
without becoming an earnest Christian. The band 
of volunteers is large, but the number of young 
preachers is very small. 

This excellent school is a second home to most 
of its teachers; and when we consider the length 
of time some of them have remained here, we are 
not surprised at the excellence of the work done, 
or the high rating of the school. The principal, Mr. 
R. A. Henderson and his wife, have a record of 
twelve years, up to 1923; Miss Margaret Michie, 
eight; Miss Helen Repass, five, and Miss Olivia 
Gwaltney, three. 

The women of Virginia may well bé proud of 
this, the result of their prayer and prompting. God 
enabled them to do even more than they hoped for. 


Oak Hill Academy and Piedmont Institute 


In addition to the three schools already described, 
Virginia has two others, like Buchanan and Blue 
Ridge, the property of the Virginia Baptist General 
Association. One of these is located at Kindrick, 
in Grayson County, and is known as Oak Hill 
Academy; it is the oldest mountain mission school 
in the state, even dating back of the twenty years 
of Lee Baptist Institute’s history. It has about 160 
students, and a property worth $31,000. The fifth 
of these Virginia schools is called Piedmont Bap- 
tist Institute; it is located at Alhambra, Amhurst 


138 OAK AND LAUREL 


Co., and has about 65 students. It was organized 
in 1921 and is the baby among Virginia mountain 
schools. 

Lee, at Pennington Gap, it will be seen, is the 
only Virginia school that belongs to the Home 
Board; but it has received only small amounts dur- 
ing recent years from that body. This school 1s 
the only one of the five located near a public 
school. The others are pioneering among the iso- 
lated mountain people, and with visible and in- 
creasing results. 

“The average mountaineer is absolutely without 
emotion, cool and reluctant to accept new ideas, 
and if you appeal to him it must be to what he 
calls his ‘horse sense.’ He is naturally a religious 
creature, very often, it is true, sadly misguided: 
but this only proves that they should have larger 
opportunities for Christian education—In Buchanan 
County. Virginia, is found the purest Anglo-Saxon 
stock in America. The county has about 14,000 
with no negroes or foreigners.”* ~ 

The Baptists of Virginia do not mean that any 
bov and girl shall be denied an education, if they can 
prevent it. And nearly 600 boys and girls are now 
being educated in these five fine schools. Not 
only are thev being educated, for in 1921-22 there 
were about 100 professions of faith in Christ among 


them, 
*M. L. Combs. 


3? 


“I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains .. . 
(Psalm 121: 1) 


CHAPTER VII 


CONCLUSION 


In the foregoing chapters appears an account of 
most of the mountain schools maintained by or- 
ganized Baptist forces in the South. 

Nine states offer in their highland regions, a 
fertile field for such efforts as Southern Baptists 
have been putting forth since 1904, to educate and 
train the eager, receptive minds of the youth of. 
the Southern Appalachian and Ozark Mountains. 

These nine states vary as to their mountain popu- 
lation; they vary in the same proportion as to 
the number of schools operated by the Home Mis- 
sion Board and the various state boards. 

North Carolina, with a large part of her territory 
mountainous, has eight such schools, the greatest 
number in any one state; Tennessee and Arkan- 
sas, practically all mountainous, come next with 
six; Georgia and Virginia have five each, South 
Carolina four; the others fewer. 

In the annual report of the Home Mission Board 
published in May 1922, we find that it was then 
operating thirty-seven schools, with 229 teachers 
and 6,183 pupils, of whom 175 were studying for 
the ministry. These schools included more than 
120 buildings, and property valued at $1,688,000. 
This flourishing condition was the growth of eigh- 
teen years, and had resulted from very small be- 


(139) 


140 OAK AND LAUREL 


ginnings; ten schools, ten buildings, 1200 pupils 
and about twenty teachers. 

What had contributed to this marvelous growth? 
Let us mention first the blessing of God, upon an 
enterprise so pleasing to his divine will for men; 
his guiding hand, his animating love. Subject to 
the heavenly Motive Power we may next consider 
the co-operation of the people of the Baptist de- 
nomination in the entire south of eighteen states, 
each giving to the cause of mountain mission 
schools along with other enterprises of the Home 
Board, without “looking only on his own things.” 

States which possess no mountains, but have 
port cities where the foreign element requires mis- 
sionary teachers; or Indian reservations where 
frontier preachers must be established, or a large 
negro population which requires especial workers; 
these states give to Home Missions without dis- 
crimination, knowing that the funds of such states 
as are largely mountainous are likewise divided 
among all the activities of the Board. This is true 
brotherly co-operation. 

Third, there enters into this great result, the 
increasing interest and loyalty of the mountain 
people themselves; deprived for generations of 
the advantage of first class schooling, they seized 
eagerly upon the opportunity for expansion of 
mental horizon, and being to a large degree Bap- 
tist by belief and inheritance, they gladly sacrificed 
to send sons and daughters to these Baptist Schools, 
where they would be trained not only mentally 
but spiritually, and learn to be a force in the church 
of our Master. . 

And last, we would consider the exceedingly fine 
influence of the average mountain school-teacher. 
Without him—or her—the growth of the system 


OAK AND LAUREL 141 


would have been small indeed. No tribute can be 
too great, no gratitude too deep and tender for 
Southern Baptists to offer to these heroic teachers, 
many of whom refuse splendid salaries and asso- 
ciation with those whom they consider as leaders 
in their profession, to spend their lives in these 
lonely, often isolated districts, their resources of 
diversion, companionship and inspiration being lim- 
ited to the school itself. They count it a joy to 
serve their Master through serving these, his “little 
ones,” and with the true teacher there is no thought 
of sacrifice. 

There has been the intention, in preparing this 
book to mention in connection with these schools, 
those men and women who have given at least 
three years of service to their present field; some 
can show a record of fourteen—eighteen—twenty 
—twenty-five or six years of unbroken service; 
and the thoughtful will immediately perceive the 
relation between the long term of faithfulness to 
ideals and the high position of certain schools in 
the system. 

There are some—nay, many, among the young 
recruits in this teaching force, who are possessed 
by the same spirit of devotion and inspired by the 
same lofty ideals as are those pioneers; so that 
this ingredient in the compound of success for our 
mountain schools, is assured for years to come. 

With the teachers, and yet apart from them, 
must be counted the personality of the only super- 
intendent of Mountain Mission Schools the Home 
Board has ever had,—Dr. Albert E. Brown of Ashe- 
ville. If he himself were not fundamentally a 
mountain spirit he could not so sympathize and 
fraternize with the people who patronize our 
schools; if he were not a natural teacher, he could 


142 OAK AND LAUREL 


not so fully enter into the ambitions and ideals, 
struggles and disappointments of this noble corps 
of men and women. If he were not pre-eminently 
a Christian he would not have given himself en- 
tirely to the work of mountain school supervision 
for nineteen years; nor would he now be saying, 
as he says in his 1922 report to the Home Board, 
explaining his intention to relinquish the superin- 
tendency a year hence: 

“T want the denomination to help me go back 
into the many districts of the mountains so remote 
that they have not really felt the influence of pro- 
gress which has been brought to other sections. 
... If I am to live out my three score and ten 
years, I still have eight or ten years of useful 
service left for me, and I crave to spend it in open- 
ing up a work for the people in these outlying set- 
tlements and communities.” 

There speaks an unselfish soul; the people of 
the highlands recognize in him a friend, and the 
young folks speak of him in terms of loyal appre- 
ciation. 

In some schools, his portrait adorns the walls; 
in some there is a building which perpetuates his 
memory; some lists of trustees are headed by his 
name, though he is, ex officio, a member of each. 
For all, he is the court of final appeal; they know 
no higher arbiter. To them he is to all intents 
and purposes, the Home Mission Board of the 
S. B. C. He has seen the Home Board schools 
grow in number, power, possessions, patronage 
and influence, and has contributed largely to their 
present healthy state. 

We have noted the agencies operating in the 
past growth of this great work; there is no rea- 
son why these same agencies should not combine 


OAK AND LAUREL 143 


to insure even greater growth in the years ahead. 
The constituency of the Southern Baptist Con- 
vention is daily becoming better informed, and 
correspondingly more deeply interested in these 
schools of ours; the population of the highlands, 
leavened everywhere now by the not insignificant 
number of those who have been able to attend our 
schools, has no longer to be won over; prejudices 
have been overcome, indifference warmed into ad- 
miration. We have just noted that the rank and 
file of faithful teachers is being reinforced from 
year to year by young lives of the same temper; 
and if the time has come, as he avers, for Dr. Brown 
to surrender the supervision of the system, no 
doubt he has trained his successor, and the work 
will go prosperously forward. God will not let 
this work suffer. 

The work of the mountain mission school is not 
merely the putting of book knowledge, or even 
better ways of living, into the head of a mountain 
boy or girl. The by-products of such teaching are 
many; the efflorescence of the branch magnifies 
and glorifies the branch itself. 

First, there is the gradual alteration of the hab- 
its of generations; better houses are built, con- 
veniences are provided, customs learned at school 
are incorporated into home living, the desire for 
expansion, for further culture has been planted, 
and has taken root. 

A transformed home life leads to a new relation 
to the community; pride in public affairs develops ; 
the “still” and all its attendant evils become un- 
desirable in a neighborhood of homes. Churches 
are rebuilt, better equipped, better attended. The 
boys come home to preach the gospel of the sal- 
vation of Christ, and that kindred gospel of clean 


144 OAK AND LAUREL 


living, and the elements of sin and shame slink 
away and hide in silence. 

A different attitude toward the law and its ob- 
servance is noticeable in communities where the 
boys and girls have gone away to a mission school. 
Regions once filled with rough characters and 
dangerous to strangers, become happy and open, 
in the consciousness of rectitude. 

Too much can scarcely be said of the degree to 
which preparation for Christian service at home 
has been incorporated into the work of these 
schools. A careful reading of the report of the 
Sunday School Board’s Teacher Training awards 
from July 1921 to July 1922, shows that among 
the schools that led in the number of awards, Mars 
Hill obtained 623, Mary P. Willingham 308, Yancey 
267, Southwest College 192, Maynard Academy 
160, Bridgeport 148, and Fruitland Institute 106. 

By states, the mountain schools of Alabama 
had 163, of Arkansas 261, of Georgia 416, of Ken- 
tucky 101, of Missouri 319, of North Carolina 1165, 
of South Carolina 85, of Tennessee 151, of Virginia 
218, a total of 2,879. 

This is a wonderful record of work done by these 
mountain boys and girls; almost one-fifth of all 
the Sunday School Board’s awards, exclusive of 
those given to the seminaries, went to the boys 
and girls of the mountain schools. Are these 
schools worth while? State schools, be they ever 
so well-equipped and thorough, will never do this 
for our children. 


The best location for a mountain school is a mat- 
ter for careful consideration; in reviewing the 
facts concerning these thirty-odd schools we find 
that some sprang up without apparent design, and 


OAK AND LAUREL 145 


grew in importance until they were valuable to 
the Home Mission Board; others were begun as 
they became denominational; many were started 
by associations or local churches; still others were 
deliberately planned by the Board, and their loca- 
tion carefully chosen. In every instance we find 
splendid co-operation between the local Baptists— 
sometimes the entire community, and the State or 
Home Mission Board, or both. 

From the facts we have gathered, these deduc- 
tions are obvious; first, that a school for moun- 
tain people should be im the mountains, where they 
are; second, it should be near some small town, 
for the sake of medical attention, accessibility to 
railways, telephone, telegraph lines, and to be with- 
in reach of interested visitors; but not near enough 
to allow the lures of town life to affect the at- 
mosphere of the school, which should be truly rur- 
al. A school in a good-sized town can never func- 
tion properly as a mountain mission school, for 
obvious reasons. ; 

To obviate the difficulties accompanying ex- 
treme isolation, each school so placed should have 
an experienced nurse on its faculty, and telephone 
connection with the nearest town; also some defi- 
nite means of transportation to and from the rail- 
road’s most convenient point. 

An infirmary is not necessary, for these schools 
in the real mountains seldom have epidemics, or 
cases of severe illness; but there frequently arise 
emergencies when a nurse with a practical knowl- 
edge of medicine is very necessary. 

There is another reason why these schools should 
be conveniently near some small town; the local 
Baptist community will always feel a particular and 
pointed interest in such a school; its members will 


146 | OAK AND LAUREL 


frequently visit it, and carry discussions of its 
progress and needs, into meetings of district and 
association and local church. This interest is ex- 
tremely wholesome for the schools, not only be- 
cause it inspires gifts, and a feeling of personal 
responsibility on the part of the town people, but 
because it keeps the school conscious of the public 
eye, and respectful of the public tongue; affairs in 
a school so located could never drop to a low ebb, 
because it would always have a vital connection 
with the outside world, and publicity is a generous 
corrective. Nothing is more wholesome than com- 
munity opinion. 

A visitor on coming away from a school whose 
nearest town is some distance off, was asked by 
a Baptist patron, “How did you find the institute? 
Was it—clean?” Upon the admission that there 
certainly was an air of neglect and inadequate 
housekeeping about the fine large buildings, this 
remark was made reflectively: 

“Ye—es, I noticed when I was there last spring 
the windows were mighty dirty, and there was 
considerable dust on the stairs, and trash about.” 
And she added, “I reckon some of us folks ought 
to go there oftener, and see that things are kept 
up better. You see,’—apologetically,—“most any- 
body gets careless when nobody pays them any 
mind.” 

At one of these schools of ours, the matron of 
the girls’ home said with a superior air,—‘“I hear 
the boys’ hall is a regular sight. They don’t take 
any interest in cleaning up, whatever.” And it 
developed that there was only a young male teach- 
er in charge of the building. 

These statements lead us to the conclusion that 
there should always be a woman in the boys’ dor- 


OAK AND LAUREL 147 


mitory. A womanly presence insures Coe aed 
consideration, and a degree of order. 

In one of our best schools the boys’ deanitance 
while clean, are absolutely bare of any home-like 
touches; the reception hall as empty as a last 
year’s bird’s nest; while in other schools, one in 
particular, where the principal, his wife and baby, 
live in the boys’ home, the reception room is car- 
peted, curtained, furnished with vases, books, pic- 
tures and music; clean and cozy and attractive. 
These boys linger in the home-like atmosphere and 
have a real, personal pride in their “parlor.” This 
principal’s wife may be an exception, but is she 
not of the type we should seek, to influence our 
mountain schools is sound and Scriptural. Per- 
exert as strong a force as her husband, and cer- 
tainly should be considered in selecting him. 

A suggestion which may prove valuable is to 
the effect that there should be at least two women 
on the Board of Trustees of every one of our 
mountain schools. A woman’s practiced eye will 
discover needs and possible convenient arrange- 
ments which would never occur to a man, however 
wise and interested he might be; this is natural, 
because home-making is a woman’s business, and 
these dormitories are to be homes, not merely 
places to sleep. The women of the faculty can al- 
ways confide their ambitions and desires for the 
school to an understanding ear, if there be a woman 
or two among the trustees. Some schools already 
have this provision, many more have not. 

The schools in certain states are neither so 
well equipped, adequately manned, or largely pat- 
ronized, as in others; since the Home Board op- 
erates with presumable impartiality in all, we must 
conclude that the difference is in the attitude of 


148 OAK AND LAUREL 


the Baptist constituency of those states, particularly 
the local communities. 

An almost universal need is more dormitories ; 
the number of schools whose buildings are not full 
is very small, and the trouble is not in any case 
with the quality of the teaching furnished, or with 
the scarcity of teachable material; the trouble is 
usually in the fact of the existence of other schools 
drawing upon the same territory, some of them 
cheaper, some of them free public schools. The 
personnel of the average mountain school faculty 
is exceptionally fine, capable and consecrated. 
These teachers would succeed in doing their work 
with much poorer equipment if we forced them to 
do so; but do we not, as Southern Baptists, owe 
the very best we can provide to these who are 
training many of our strongest future preachers 
and statesmen? 

There is no question about it; many of our most 
forceful preachers come from the mountains; 175 
in 1922, were preparing definitely in these schools, 
to preach. The schools do more than train these 
men; they help them to stay in school, by giving 
them free tuition, and allowing their children to 
come at half the regular cost. Many of these men 
also work in the school and earn their board. This 
rule applies to practically all the schools. 

Every school lays especial stress on Bible study; 
most of them teach also the books of the Sunday 
School Normal course, enabling their pupils to ob- 
tain the Blue Seal. This training is especially in- 
valuable to the future preacher, while of course it 
is a great help to all young Christians. 7 

Most of these schools foster the W. M. U. or- 
ganizations, especially the Y. W. A.; (in South 
Carolina the College Y. W. A. are known as Hassel- 


OAK AND LAUREL 149 


tine Circles) while many have also the G. A. and 
R. A., and where these are not actually operating 
in the schools, the teachers will be found conduct- 
ing them in the local church. The tribute paid 
by the pastor of the Mars Hill Church to the faith- 
fulness of the college teachers might well be sub- 
scribed to by every pastor of a church which stands 
in a school community. These school pastors, 
however, heartily reciprocate; many of them 
teach the Bible in the schools, and some of them 
have a double responsibility as both pastor and 
principal, though this is unjust to both offices. 
Whether the Bible is taught by the pastor or a 
professor, however, the teaching given in our 
mountain schools is sound and Scriptural. Per- 
haps not all these good men are so thoroughly in- 
forareasaseto be able to aspire to the. chair of 
Higher Criticism, and we thank God for that; but 
they will teach the children to know and reverence 
the Holy Word, and to believe in it unto salvation. 

It would not take a great deal of money to sup- 
ply these schools of ours with the equipment which 
is essential to moderate comfort and efficiency. 
In 1919 the entire mountain school system was 
thrilled by the hopes which the launching of the 
75 Million Campaign engendered; but those hopes 
dwindled; disappointment came to all in greater 
or less degree. Many things needed for years, 
at one time almost within their very grasp, slippea 
farther away than ever as receipts grew less; 
and the percentage which was allotted to the work 
of the mountain schools, small at best, shrank un- 
til it was well nigh invisible. That girl who must 
carry water from a well yards away from the 
building, upstairs, perhaps two flights; the one 
who must do her washing in icy water under a 


150. OAK AND LAUREL 


rude shelter all winter long; the one who must 
study by a little kerosene lamp, and heat her room 
with a little wood stove that in a small room must 
be dangerously near her bed; the teachers who are 
trying to teach everlasting truth with a meager 
equipment, and living lives of sacrifice daily,— 
these were disappointed by the failure of Southern 
Baptists to meet their pledges on time. 

The Survey Committee of the S. B. C. is re- 
porting that many of these schools must be aban- 
doned because Campaign funds have not been suffi- 
cient. Can we see this done without self-reproach? 

But the God who inspired the founding of these 
schools, and has watched and guarded them all 
these years has an arm that is not weakened; he 
was in the launching of the Campaign; he knows 
the truth, and waits in patience until his plans ma- 
ture. He will not suffer the cause to lose through 
human weakness, but will make it possible for 
Southern Baptists to pay into the treasuries of 
State and Home Mission Boards, that which will 
redeem our promises to the young people of the 
mountains, and their faithful teachers. God is 
able. 

We can, and should, pray for our schools. James 
G. K. McClure says in his book on Intercessory 
Prayer, “Teachers need prayer—prayer that they 
may be patient, that they may see good possibili- 
ties in every pupil, and that they may endeavor to 
bring out those possibilities in all ‘godliness and 
honesty!’ . . . We do well to pray that the teacher 
_ may always come to his classes like a benediction, 
and that his personal fellowship with his pupils 
may be increasing inspiration.” 

And then we should never fail to pray for our 
young people in the schools. Quoting again from 


OAK AND LAUREL 151 


Dr. McClure’s book, “There can never be too great 
and too earnest prayer for children. . . . Children 
have in themselves the making or unmaking of 


the world. .. . When Christ prayed over children, 
there must have been, it would seem, distinct in- 
tercession for them... that they might be hea- 


venly minded, so that they should do Heaven’s 
work upon Earth, and then do Heaven’s work in 
glory. ... Our prayer should be in the very spirit 
and to the very ends that characterized Christ’s 
prayer for them—that they may belong to and do 
the service of the Kingdom of Heaven.” 


The first of our mountain schools on record is 
the one described by Matthew the historian, in the 
first two verses of his fifth chapter. It was like 
the beginning of many of our mountain schools 
to this day; it had a small faculty—one teacher ; 
it had a multitude of hungry minds coming to be 
taught; it had no equipment, not even a roof for 
shelter; but it had God’s blessing, and the great- 
est teaching that ever fell on needy ears came from 
that one teacher’s loving lips; teaching that revo- 
lutionized the world; teaching that brought hope 
and joy into the lives of those who listened. 

Our mountain school teachers to-day copy that 
Teacher’s methods; they study his pedagogy; they 
strive to live as he lived, to love as he loved. And 
the results are beautiful, heartening; more and 
more, young men and women are following Jesus; 
coming down from their mountains into the val- 
leys of service, hastening to bring his Kingdom in. 


“The mountains shall bring peace to the people” 
(Psaim:/224 3). 


































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TEST QUESTIONS 


What states have mountain mission schools? 
Name and locate these schools in Alabama 
and Arkansas. 

Name and locate those in Georgia, Kentucky 
and Missouri. 

Do the same for North and South Carolina. 
Do the same for Tennessee and Virginia. 
How many of these are Home Mission Board 
schools? How are the others controlled? 
Give approximate enrollment of these schools, 
and number of ministerial students. 

How old is the Mountain Mission School sys- 
tem of the Home Board? Who has been its 
superintendent? 

What is the ideal location for a mountain mis- 
sion school? Why should they not be in 
towns? 

Why cannot state schools suffice? 

Is it a good thing for principals and teachers 
to remain more than a year or two in the same 
school? Give reasons. 

Cite some outstanding examples. 

What can you say of the average mountain 
mission school teacher? 

Name some reasons for the growth of our 
mountain mission schools. 

What grounds have we for expecting a con- 
tinuation of their success? 

What can you say of the Bible teaching in 
these schools? 

How do they stand as regards Teacher Traine 
ing Awards? 


(154) 


18. 
19. 


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OAK AND LAUREL 155 


Which ones are Junior Colleges? 

Why are some schools better equipped than 
others? 

What about those in your own state? 

What can you say of the religious life in these 
schools? 

What is said of ideal conditions in a boys’ dor- 
mitory? 

What are the outstanding needs of these 
schools? 

What can we do to supply them? 

What have Baptist Mission Schools done for 
the mountain communities? 

















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